OPINIONS 



G. N. JOHNSON AND A. A. MORSON, ESttS. 



UPON QUESTIONS 



COSCEEKING THE RIGHTS OF THE FA€tnLT¥ 



OP THB 

"Mml lepartmEnt of lampittii liitiifi] CBlitgf 

TOGETHER WITH THE 

REPLY 

OF THE SAME FACULTY TO THE 

MEMORIAL OF THE TWENTY-TWO PHYSICIAN 



AND OTHER DOCUMENTS 
Ef Irttlng to the same qnestlons 







RICHMOND: 
PRINTED BY ELLIOTT & NYl 
1853. 



o 



7 



N.^*S<» 



OPINION OF MR. JOHNSON. 



On the 25th June, 1853, a resolution was adopted by the Fa- 
culty of the Medical College at Richmond, in the following 
words : ^^ Resolved, that Doctors Johnson and Maupin be ap- 
pointed a committee to consult with Messrs. A. A. Morson and 
G. N. Johnson, in reference to the legal rights of the Medical 
Faculty, arising out of the connexion with Hampden Sidney 
College." 

In pursuance of that resolution, Doctors Johnson and Maupin 
have conferred with Mr. Morson and myself on behalf of the 
Faculty, and have laid before us the minute books of the pro- 
ceedings of the Faculty from the foundation of the Medical Col- 
lege to the present time, and such other documents, correspon- 
dence and information as they thought would throw light upon 
the subjects on which we are consulted. I proceed to state the 
facts, which appear to me to bear upon the subject^ and the 
opinion I have formed upon those facts. 

The resolution above quoted, grew out of the recent action 
of the Board of Trustees of Hampden Sidney College at their 
meeting in June last, when that Board disregarded the nomina- 
tion of the gentleman unanimously nominated by the Faculty 
of the Medical College to fill the new chair of physiology and 
medical jurisprudence, and appointed one whose name was not 
brought to their notice by the Faculty of the Medical College. 

The gentleman who received the nomination of the Faculty, 
and whom the Trustees refused to confirm, is one whose stand- 
ing is so high in the esteem of the medical profession and of 
society, and whose character is so unexceptionable, that it is 
plain the Trustees did not disregard his nomination because 
they were satisfied he was unfit to be appointed. They were 
governed either by a simple preference of their own, between 
two gentlemen, both of whom they probably regarded as suffi- 
ciently qualified for the place ; or by a determination to take 
this occasion to show that henceforth they would pay no respect 
whatever to the nomination or wishes of the Faculty. What- 
ever was the motive, the result is the same. The nomination 
of the Faculty has been disafiirmed without cause, and ano- 
ther physician has been appointed by the original act of the 
trustees without any previous nomination by the Faculty of the 
person so appointed. And we suppose the first question intended 
to be submitted to us is, Whether the Trustees had a right so to 
act? 



The facts about the creation and fiUing of this chair, I un- 
derstand to be briefly these : 

At a meeting of the Faculty of the 3Iedical College on the 
22d of !March last, it was resolved to be expedient to create a 
chair of physiology and medical jurisprudence, and that the 
Faculty would proceed; on the 23rd of April, to nominate a pro- 
fessor for that chair. 

Before the 2.3d of April arrived, Dr. 3Iartin P. Scott, bv a 
letter to the Faculty, dated the 4th April, became a candidate 
for the appointment, and expressed his willingness to have his 
name submitted through the Faculty to the Board of Trustees 
for appointment: and on the 20th of April, Dr. Goodridge A. 
"Wilson wrote to the dean of the Faculty, inf3rming him that 
he was a candidate for the same professorship, and would on 
that day forward to the Secretary of the Board of Trustees a 
formal application for the place, accompanied by his testimonials. 

The Faculty of the I\Iedical College justly regarded this 
communication of Dr. Wilson as indicating an intention not 
to submit his claims to the consideration of the Faculty, but to 
endeavor to procure an appointment from the Trustees without 
regard to the choice of the Faculty: and not wishing to proceed 
further in the matter until further information could be obtained 
to guide their course, they declined to go into any nomination 
at their meeting on the 23d of April, and m lieu thereof, they 
resolved to reconsider and lay on the table their resolution of 
the 22d of March for creating a new chair, and that Dr. Green, 
1 the President of Hampden Sidney,) be requested to withhold 
from the Board of Trustees the proceedings of the Faculty upon 
this subject until then further action thereupon. 

After this, and before the meeting of the 26thof ]\Iay, present- 
ly to be mennoned, the members of the Faculty continued to 
niake enquiries with a view to ascertain if there was any dan- 
ger of a violation of their supposed right of nomination by the 
Board of Trustees: and they did so partly by refreshing their 
own recollection of all that had taken place heretolore between 
themselres and the Boai'd of Trustees, and pgjrtly by conversa- 
tion and correspondence A\-ith the President and other members 
of the Board. The result of all these enquiries satisfied them, 
beyond doubt, that there was no siich danger, and that their 
nomination would be confirmed in this case, as it had always 
been heretofore in other cases. 

Dr. Green, the President of Hampden Sidney College, and 
ex omcio a member of the Board of Trustees, had an interview 
with Dr. MaupiUj the dean of the Faculty, in Richmond, prior 
to the 3d of April, in ^hich the subject of the new chair and 
the nature of the connection between the Medical Department 
and the Board of Trustees was discussed, and in which Dr. 
Green expressed his own opinion that the nominations of the 



Medical Faculty should, almost as a matter of conrsCj be con- 
firmed. In his letter of the 3d of April, 1853, to Dr. Maupin, 
he refers to that interview, and says that the sentiments then 
expressed by him, are unchanged, and that, so far as he had 
any knowledge, ^^ they are, and will be, the sentiments of the 
Board." In his letter of the 27th of A.pril, in answer to one of 
the 22d, from Dr. Maupin, in which Dr. M. communicated the 
apprehensions which the Faculty felt in consequence of the po- 
sition taken by Dr. Wilson, he again expresses his adherence 
to the same opinions expressed to Dr. Maupin, and adds, '- if 
the recorded agn ement, or correspondence, be such as I have 
supposed, there need be no apprehension in the case." In the 
same letter Dr. Green asks to be referred to the documents and 
correspondence to which he alludes, or to have a statement of 
them sent to him to refresh his memory, mentioning that the 
secretary of the Board did not live near him, so that he could 
not conveniently have access to the papers in question. 

In answer to this letter, Dr. Maupin sent to Dr. Green a copy 
of the original letter of President Carroll, transmitting and ex- 
plaining tfie resolutions of the Trustees which established the 
Medical Department, which Dr. Maupin regarded as fully con- 
firming the impressions the Medical Faculty had always enter- 
tained about their right of nomination. 

On the 26Lh of May, the Faculty of the Medical College hav- 
ing become fully satisfied that the Trustees would consider 
themselves bound to respectihe nominations of the Faculty, and 
would not feel at liberty to appoint any one not having such 
nomination, passed a series of resolutions all relating to the new 
chair. The first of them reaffirmed or reinstated their resiolu- 
tion of the 22d of March, creating the new chair ; and the 
second and third prescribed the terms upon which the new pro- 
fessor should come in. And thereupon, at the same meeting, 
the Faculty proceeded, by an unanimous vote, to nominate Dr. 
Martin P. Scott to fill the new chair, and the proceedings of 
that meeting were ordered to be communicated to the Board of 
Trustees. 

Such was the confidence of the Faculty in the mutual under- 
standing which they believed now existed between them and 
the Trustees, and in the belief that the Board of Trustees would 
respect what they considered, and what they believed the Board 
considered, their rio-ht of no?niuation, thaiihey even abandoned 
their design of deputing a committee of their own number to 
attend the meeting of the Board of Trustees in June ; and al- 
though testimonials of the qualification of Dr. Scott were in their 
possession, they did not think it necessary or proper to forward 
them to the Board ; but, according to their usual custom, rested 
upon their own simple nomination of Dr. Scott to the Board, and 
their own recommendation of him as a person worthy to be 
appointed. 



6^ 

The Board of Trustees held their regular meeting in June, 
and they proceeded first to confirm the act of the Faculty creat- 
ing a new chair and then to appoint a professor to fill it. No 
official record or copy of their proceedings at this meeting has 
been laid before us ; but we are informed that the Board acted 
without having before them the records of their former proceed- 
ings, which were in the hands of their late secretary, Mr. 
Watkins, who was no longer in office, and who lived in Prince 
Edward County, some miles distant from the place of meeting 
of the Board,* and that a bare majority of those members of the 
Board who were present voted for the appointment of Dr. Wilson . 

On the 25th of June, the Faculty of the Medical College being 
informed unofficially of that action of the Trustees, met and passed 
certain resolutions, shewing their unwillingness to acquiesce in 
the course adopted by the Trustees, and respectfully but ear- 
nestly requesting the president of Hampden Sidney to call 
another meeting of the Board of Trustees , with a view to recon- 
sider their proceedings in June, and to allow the Faculty to be 
heard before them. 

A letter has recently been received by the Dean of the Faculty, 
from the President of Hampden Sidney, in which he states his 
belief that Dr. Wilson is now a professor de facto in the College; 
and the Trustees will be probably unwilling, now, by their own 
actj to deprive him of the office which ihey have just conferred 
upon him. He advises, therefore, against calling another meet- 
ing of the Trustees, though he thinks the Board would not be 
opposed to an amicable separation hereafter between the parent 
institution and the medical department. 

Such have been the recent proceedings in reference to the new 
chair of physiology, as far as I have been informed of them. It 
is proper to add, however, that several letters have been written 
by the dean of the Medical Faculty to the president of H. S. 
College, of which no copies were retained, so that my view of 
the correspondence has not been as full as I could desire. 

In enquiring into the nature of the connexion between Hamp- 
den Sidney College and the Medical College or Department, it 
is necessary to go back to the beginning of it. 

The Medical School, in Richmond, owes its origin to the pri- 
vate enterprise of a few physicians in that city, and has been 
built up and sustained by their means, influence and untiring 
exertions, without any pecuniary aid whatever from Hampden 
Sidney College, and without imposing upon that institution any 
risk or burden. A report of a select committee of the legisla- 

* Dr. Green's letter of the 30th June, 1853, to Dr. Maupin, states the want of 
authentic information about the relations between the Board and the Medical 
Department, under which the Trustees labored, in consequence of the absence of 
these papers, and that the Members of the Board who lived at a distance were 
unwilling to wait for their arrival, although they v/ere expected. 



tiire, appointed at the session of 1840-'41 to examine into the 
condition of the Richmond Medical School, uses this language: 
^^ About two years ago, Drs. Warner, Cullen, Johnson, Cham- 
berlayne, Bohannan, and Maupin, by their own unaided enter- 
prise and talents, organized the Richmond Medical School as 
an authorized branch of Hampden Sidney College. Opposed 
by many obstacles of no ordinary character, they have, by dint 
of great industry and perseverance, yet quietly and unobtru- 
sively, overcome most of them." 

The original Professors were four: Drs. Cullen, Bohannan, 
Chamberlayne, and Warner; two places being vacant, which 
were soon filled by the appointment of Ur. Thomas Johnson and 
Dr Maupin. 

The earliest document I have seen in the history of the school, 
is a draft (in the hand- writing of Dr. Warner) of the petition of 
certain physicians of Richmond, to the Trustees of H. S., for the 
organization of a medical school at Richmond , under the cover of 
the charter of H. S. The petition contains an argument in 
favor of the legality of the proposed connection, drawn chiefly 
from precedent; and it declares that it was not intended to ask 
any appropriation from the funds of H. S. College, as the peti- 
tioners expected to obtain the necessary buildings and rear up 
the institution by the expenditure of their own private funds or 
those raised by their personal friends. And with the petition, 
they presented as an integral part of the scheme, a ticket of pro- 
fessors, containing, doubtless, the names of Drs. Cullen, Bo- 
hannan, Chamberlayne, and Warner, which, the petition says, 
''is presented " as '^ a united ticket, made up after mature de- 
liberation, and therefore is presented as a whole." 

The next document in order is the original draft of a sort of 
constitution or ^' Regulations " for the Medical College, in the 
hand-writing of Dr. Warner, and consisting of twelve articles, 
a fair copy of which was sent to the trustees for their approval. 
The 1st article provides that the Medical Department of H. S. 
College shall, for the present, consist of six professors, '^in 
whom shall be vested the government of the department, sub- 
ject always to the approval of the President and Trustees of 
Hampden Sidney College." The 5th article gives to the Medi- 
cal Faculty the right to fix the fees of each professor, not exceed- 
ing twenty dollars to each, from each student. The 7th article 
makes it the duty of the medical professors to examine the can- 
didates for graduation , and to recommend to the Trustees for 
the degree of '^ doctor of medicine " such as they deemed quali- 
fied to receive that degree. The 8th article made it the impera- 
tive duty of the Trustees to confer the degree upon all those so 
recommended. The 9th article authorized the Faculty to pass 
such additional regulations, or by-laws, for the goverimient of 
the students or advancement of the interest of the department 



as might be necessary, subject to the approval of the Trustees 
of Hampden Sidney College. The 10th article provided that 
ail property which might be acquired by private subscription to 
the Medical Department, or by contributions from the professors, 
should belong exclusively to the medical professors as their 
private property, and independent of all control of the Trustees 
of Hampden Sidney College; but property or funds contributed 
by the Trustees of the College, or given by private individuals 
to the Trustees, for the use of the Medical Department, should 
be regarded as the property of Hampden Sidney College, to be 
appropriated to the use of the Medical College so long as it should 
be in operation; but upon its dissolution should be held for the 
general purposes of Himpden Sidney College. The above arti- 
cles are selected as having some bearing on the questions sub- 
mitted to us. 

These regulations were sent to the Trustees for their approval, 
together with one or more resolutions for their adoption, which 
(in the form in which they were proposed) I have, unfortunately, 
not been able to see; but they related to the appointment of 
professors, and the powers of the Faculty and Trustees in rela- 
tion thereto, as appears from the letter of President Carroll to 
Dr. Warner, to be mentioned hereafter. 

On the 1st of December, 1837, t;:e Trustees had a meeting at 
which the whole scheme thus proposed Avas considered and dis- 
cussed. The Trustees agreed to it almost in the precise shape 
in which it was proposed. The four professors proposed were 
appointed, and the twelve articles of the *' Regulations" were 
adopted, with the exception of some changes in two of those ar- 
ticles, namely, the 8th and the lOih. The change in the 10th 
article, which secured to the professors the property to be con- 
tributed by themselves or their friends, was slightly improved 
in language, but not altered in substance. The 8th article, re- 
specting conferring degrees, was amended by requiring the 
Trustees to confer degrees upon those who passed their exami- 
nations to the satisfaction of the Medical Faculty only when 
they ( the Trustees) deemed them entitled thereto; but when it 
is considered that the Medical Faculty alone were (according to 
the 7th article) to examine the candidates, that the examination 
was to be held at Richmond, and that the Trustees were not 
required to attend it, it is obvious that this amendment was 
merely one of form, intended to bring the Medical College more 
clearly under the cover and protection of the charter, and that 
there wa'^ no real intention on the part of the Trustees to at- 
tempt to judge of the qualifications of the candidates for degrees, 
and so Dr. Carroll in his letter to Dr. Warner explains it. In 
fact, we learn that the practice has been for the dean of the 
Medical Faculty, annually, in advance of the examinations, to 
send up to the Trustees, or some of them^ a sufficient number 



of diplomas to be signed, (the charter requiring them to be signed 
by five trustees at least,) that they are signed accordingly, the 
names of the graduates being still blank, that they are returned 
in that shape to the Faculty, who fill up the blanks with the 
names of the graduates when the examinations are over, and 
then, on commencement day, the President of the Board of 
Trustees appears, and goes through the form of delivering the 
diplomas to the persons whose names appear upon them. 

In the same spirit the resolution proposed by the physicians, 
with reference to the mode of making future appointments of 
professors, was modified by the Trustees to suit the supposed 
letter of the charier, yet with the view of retaining practically 
the power of appointment in the Medical Faculty. As already 
stated, 1 do not know exactly what the resolution proposed by 
the physicians upon this subject was ; but, in lieu of it, the 
Trustees, at their same meeting of the 1st December, 1^37, 
adopted the following resolutions : 

^' Resolved, That the Medical Faculty be authorized to select 
and appoint some suitable persons to fill the professorships of 
^chemistry and pharmacy' and 'surgery,' until these pro- 
fessorships shall be filled by the President and Trustees of H. 
S. College." 

'^ Resolved, That the Medical Faculty be authorized, neces- 
sarily, to supply any vacancy which may occur in said F^aculty, 
until said vacancy shall be filled by the President and Trustees 
of Hampden Sidney Collego." 

To which the trustees added the fallowing resolution : 

^* Resolved^ That the Medical Faculty shall not have power 
to subject the President and Trustees of Hampden Sidney Col- 
lege to any expense or debt on account of the medical depart- 
ment, unless specially authorized to do so by an order of a 
Board of said Trustees." 

The result of this action of the Board was communicated to 
Drs. Warner and Bohannanin the following letters : 

1. A letter from professor John W. Draper to Dr. Warner, 
dated the 1st December, 1837, in the following words : 

Dear Sin : — The Board has risen a few moments ago. I 
write in haste to inform you, that after some struggle, we were 
enabled to carry your plan. The department was organized 
and professors appointed, (fcc.,as recommended by your papers. 
A iQw alterations were considered necessary by the Boaid in 
some of your regulations. They were, however, chiefly verbal, 
or confined to those points where you would clash with the 
charter. The main features of the plan were carried. 
Ever yours, 

JOHN W. DRAPER. 



10 

2. A letter from Dr. Carroll, the President of Hampden Sid- 
ney College, to Dr. Warner, dated the 2d Dec, 1837, giving 
a more detailed account of what occurred, and explaining the 
motive and object of the Board in making the few changes in 
the plan which they did make, and in passing the resolutions 
which they passed. It is impossible to form a true and just 
idea of the understanding or contract between the 3Iedical Fac- 
ulty and the Board of Trustees at the tnneof forming the anom- 
alous but important connection which took place between them, 
without reading the whole ol that letter, which we may fairly 
infer constituted a necessary inducement to the medical profes- 
sors to embark in a new and difficult undertaking, involnng 
them in great risk, trouble and expense. I have, already, how- 
ever, spokenof that part of the letter which explains the changes 
made in the '' Regulations," and will now only quote that part 
of it which relates to the resolutions adopted by the Board about 
the future appointments of professors. It reads as follows : — 
'f The resoluiion respecting filling vacancies had to be modified 
to suit the powers which our charFer confers onus for appointing 
professors, so as to read as follows: ' Resolved, that the Medical 
Faculty be authorized to select and appoint suitable persons to 
fill the professorships of surgery, chemistry and pharmacy, 
until these professorships shall be filled by the President and 
Trustees of Hampden Sidney College.' Our charter explicitly 
requires us to appoint, in due form, the professors; but the 
spirit of the resolution you suggested is completely preserved. 
You can appoint the men you wish, immediately, under the 
power now granted to you by our Board; and under a similar 
resolution which our Board passed in regard to the resignation 
of any of the professors now appointed, or any vacaney that may 
occur ^ you can fill that also, immediately, when it occurs, and 
our Board, when they meet, icill hi due form confirm your ap- 
pointment ^ 

It is to be observed; that this letter of Dr. Carroll, is evidently 
not private, but official. He speaks not for himself merely, but 
for the Board, in all that he says. 

3. Another letter of Dr. Carroll, of the same date, but ad- 
dressed to Dr. Bohannan, written in the same spirit with that 
to Dr. Warner, but more brief. He says : 

^'Our Board of Trustees met yesterday, and I hasten to com- 
municate to you the result of the meeting. I moved in behalf 
of the Faculty of Arts, that a Medical Department of Hampden 
Sidney College be estabhshed, to be located in the City of Rich- 
mond. After a full and free discussion the resolution was carried 
with much cordiality and unanimity by the Board of Trustees. 
Your ticket of Professors was then presented, and each of you 
formally appointed to the chairs to which your names stand 



11 

attached on the ticket. The Rules and Regulations which you 
drafted and presented were adopted^ with such slio'ht alterations 
as m«ide the language of their provisions correspond with the 
exercise of those powers of our charter which relate to conferring 
degrees and appointing professors. The alteration made, in 
no way affect the spirit of your regulations. All that you have 
requested ive have granted. I have written to Dr. Warner the 
precise alterations m,ade and the reasons for making them. To 
that document I refer you for further information on this point. 
I have only to add, in conclusion, that the Faculty of Arts, and 
a large majority of the Board of Trustees^ regard your enterprise, 
with deep and lively interest," &c. 

The Medical Faculty v/as organized under this arrangement, 
and their school went into operation. The vacant chairs of 
surgery and chemistry were soon filled by the Faculty by the 
appointment of Dr. Thomas Johnson to the former, and Dr. 
Maupin to the latter; but, soon afterwards, the Medical Faculty 
changed the arrangement of the chairs, in part, by an exchange 
between Dr. Johnson and Dr. Warner, of their respective 
chairs. These proceedings were reported to the Trustees and 
confirmed . 

Several changes have since taken place in the constitution of 
the Faculty. Some of the members have died, and others have 
resigned, and their places have successively been filled by new 
appointments ; and in every such case the Medical Faculty has 
made the nomination for the vacancy, and that nomination has 
been confirmed by the Trustees. Thus have been successively 
appointed. Dr. Wyman, Dr. Gibson, Dr. Carter P. Johnson, and 
Dr. Tucker. In none of these cases was there any difliculty or 
hesitation, on the part of the Board, in confirming the nomina- 
tion of the Faculty, (although there were generally several ap- 
plicants to the Faculty for each vacant appointment) except in 
the case of Dr. Gibson. When the question arose before the 
Board whether his nomination should be confirmed, some one 
or two of the trustees objected to it, upon the ground that the 
Medical Faculty had published him already as appointed, which 
they considered disrespectful to the Board. The peculiar cir- 
cumstances under which that v/asdone, however, were explain- 
ed to the Board by one of its own members, and Dr. Gibson was 
confirmed ; four trustees only, of a full Board, voting against him. 

On that occasion, Mr. F. N. Watkins, the secretary of the 
Board, wrote to Dr. Maupin, who was then Dean of the Faculty-, 
a full account of what occurred, and his letter, which bears 
date the 27th November, 1847, stated it to be '■^ the almost unan- 
imous opinion of the Board tliat the nomination of the Faculty 
should ahoays be confirmed.'^'* 

The Medical Faculty have never, until the unexpected trans- 
action of June last, had any reason to doubt the sincerity or 



12 

truth of these assurances of Dr. Carroll and Mr. VYatkins. They 
have heen confirmed in their understanding of their rights and 
their confidence in these assurances, by all that has ever oc- 
cnred between them and the Board since the foundation of the 
College in 1837, and by the conversations above mentioned 
with Dr. Green and other members of the Board, especially with 
Mr. Maxwell, who was President of Hampden Sidney in the 
T/'ear 1838, and for some years afterwards. 

In considering and endeavoring to ascertain the true relations 
subsisting between the Medical Faculty and the Trustees of H. 
S. College, some other facts in the history of the Medical School 
ought to be borne in mind. That school having been fully or- 
ganized, about the ISth of December, 1837, by the appointment 
ot the six original professors, its Faculty proceeded, in 1838, to 
prepare for putting it in operation. They obtained a lease of the 
Union Hotel and som? neighboring buildings for a College and 
Infirmary, and proceeded to fit up and repair them at considera- 
ble expanse, and purchased the necessary furniture and appa- 
ratus. The first course of lectures was delivered in tlie winter 
of 1838-9; and the school has been in regular operation ever 
since. In March, 1844, the Faculty of the Medical College pro- 
cured a donation from the Council of the City of Richmond, of 
the sum of $2,000, for the use of that College, to enable them 
to purchase a lot of ground in the City, on v»^hich to erect suita- 
ble buildings for the College and Infirmary, and made the pur- 
chase accordingly at that price. On the 9th February, 1844, on 
the petition of the same Faculty, the General Assembly passed 
an act, entitled '• An Act investing part of the Literary Fund 
in buildings. &c.. for the Medical College at Richmond." That 
act authorized and directed a loan from the Literary Fund to 
the Faculty of the Medical Department of Hampden Sidney 
College, of §15,000, to be invested, as said Faculty might desire 
and suggest, in land and buildings for the use and benefit of the 
Medical College at Richmond, upon condition that a lien upon 
the property be retained as a security for the re-payment of the 
principal and interest of the loan, and that the Faculty should 
also give sufiicient personal security for such payment and for 
the payment of insurance and taxes. 

l^he loan was made accordingly, and the required security 
was given, partly by the bonds of the individual professors, and 
partly by a deed, dated the 4tli July, 1 844, recorded in the office 
of the Hustings Court of Richmond, between Thomas T. Giles 
and others, of the first part, the President and Directors of the 
Literary Fund, of the second part, and the Faculty pf the Med- 
ical Department of Hampden Sidney College, of the third part; 
which deed answered the double purpose of a conveyance of the 
lotto the President and Directors of the Literary Fund as Trus- 
tees; for the use of the Faculty of the Medical College and their 



13 

lawful successors, and of a lien on the property to secure there- 
payment of the principal and interest of the loan. 

Under an act of the legislature, passed the 20th March, 1845, 
the same Faculty procured from the Literary Fund an addi- 
tional loan of $10;000; to be invested in the same way and to 
be secured in like manner with the loan of $15,000. 

By means of the $25,000 thus borrowed by them from the 
State, aided by their own money, which was freely expended 
to the amount of several thousand dollars, as I am informed, 
the Medical Faculty erected and furnished the buildings now 
called the Richmond Medical College, and suitably enclosed 
and improved the grounds ; and the members of the Faculty 
proceeded regularly to pay their semi-annual interest upon the 
$25,000 so loaned, until the State, by an act passed the 9th 
March, 1850, and revocable at the pleasure of the legislature in 
regard to future interest, relieved them from the duty of paying 
any more interest, expressly retaining, however, the securities 
held by the Literary Fund with a view to the payment of the 
principal. 

The Faculty, as between themseWes at least, have always 
held the incoming or new professors hable to contribute to the 
burden of these loans and the other expenses of the institution, and 
the President and Directors of the Literary Fund, under the ad- 
vice of the attorney general, have allowed the bonds of retiring 
or deceased professors to be surrendered to them or their repre- 
sentatives, upon receiving the bonds of the new professors in 
lieu of them. 

It is certain that the professors of the Medical Faculty have, 
from the first, until now, borne all the pecuniary burdens and 
risks of the institution, with such aid only as has been obtained, 
by their solicitation, from the City and the State. The corpo- 
ration of Hampden Sidney has never been called upon to con- 
tribute any thing. 

Moreover, the government and management of the Medical 
College, as it regards the appointment of subordinate officers, 
the government of these officers and the students, the course of 
instruction, arrangement of lectures, making and executing con- 
tracts, the establishment and management of the infirmary, and 
in short everything in any way relating to the Medical College, 
has been from the first exclusively conducted by the medical 
professors, without complaint, objection, or interference on the 
part of the Trustees of Hampden Sidney College, except in the 
matters above stated in relation to the part which the Trustees 
took in the original establishment of the medical department, 
their subsequent action from time to time upon the nominations 
of professors, and the signing and delivering of diplomas. 

These are, as far as I am informed, substantially the facts un- 
der which the questions propounded arise 3 and the first question, 



14 

as already stated, is, Had the Board of Trustees a right to act as 
they have done in disregarding the nomination of the Medical 
Faciihy and appointing a person not nominated by them at ah? 

I understand the question to be propounded not as a matter of 
idle curiosity, stiU less with any view of unnecessarily finding 
fault with the Board of Trustees, who have been always here- 
tofore the fiiends of the College, expressing an interest in its 
success, and who came forward, in the infancy of the institution, 
to christen it (as they supposed) with the sanctity of law, 
and to clothe it with the mantle of their patronage. They were 
then kind and courteous godfathers, not claiming either parent- 
age or any troublesome and oppressive degree of guardianship: 
though now , when the infant is of age and able to take care ofitself, 
the godfathers seek for the first time to put it in leading strings. 
But the question is seriously propx)unded by those who consider 
their rights invaded and their interests in danger, who think 
that a great wrong has been done to them, but, lest they should 
be mistaken, desire advice upon the subject of their rights before 
they take further action. 

The question is, in some of its aspects, by no means fi'eefi-om 
difficulty, and has been, as it deserves to be, most seriously con- 
sidered. 

If the arrangement between the Trustees and the Medical 
Faculty, in December, 1S3T, was a lawful arrangement — one 
which the Board of Trustees under their charter had a right to 
make, and which the Medical Faculty and their successors had 
a right to enforce, by a resort to the legal tribunals if necessary — 
then the question may be considered as a legal question. And 
since it is possible at least that the arrangement was lawful, and 
that the Faculty have a right to enforce it, we will proceed first to 
consider it as a mere legal question. So considered, its solution 
will depend on the intei-pretation which ought to be given to the 
contract. 

There being no one document which professes or purports to 
contain the whole contract, we are forced to look at all the pa- 
pers and acts fi'om which the contract may be deduced. We 
may also, according to the strictest rules of e\^dence, look at 
the circumstances and position of the parties. We perceive on 
the one hand an association of physicians ready to embark in this 
enterprise of a medical school, and possessing, as they believed, 
in hand or in expectancy, all the means necessary for the suc- 
cess of their scheme, except the legal power of conferring degrees. 
It might have been convenient for them to have a charter also 
for the protection and better enjoyment of their property, but 
they did not seek an^^ benefit from a charter for that purpose, 
because in the aiTangement they themselves proposed, and 
which was actually made, they retained their property in their 
own private keeping, and did not vest it in the corporation of 



15 

Hampden Sidney. They did not need or want a connection 
for the purpose of perpetuating a body of professors, because no 
endowment was offered by Hampden Sidney for that purpose ; 
and as to this mere selection of a new professor when an old one 
died or resigned, they were more competent, it was to be sup- 
posed, for that purpose than a body of men who were not phy- 
sicians, and who were themselves selected on account of their 
supposed fitness to manage a merely literary institution ; and 
besides, it was natural that they would prefer to be associated 
with medical gentlemen of their own selection. It is plain, 
therefore, from the circumstances of the parties, that the Medical 
Faculty sought the connection only to get the form or color of 
legal authority for conferring degrees, and they desired in all 
other respects to be as independent of Hampden Sidney as pos- 
sible. But the petition, the regulations, and (we m::iy presume 
from Dr. Carroll's letter to Dr. Warner) the resolution which 
they sent for the concurrence of the Trustees, all prove that to 
have been the real plan and design — the sole end and aim of 
the proposed connection. The Trustees had no difficulty in per- 
ceiving the meaning and spirit of the scheme. They had no 
objection to it -, it proposed to impose upon them no serious 
trouble, no real responsibihty; they believed, doubtless, that the 
new institution would be a useful one to the public at large, and 
might reflect some honor upon Hampden Sidney, while it pro- 
posed to impose upon her no burden or expense. They there- 
fore approved and sanctioned the Avhole plan as proposed, 
making such changes only in the language of the ^' regulations" 
and '* resolutions " as were necessary in their opinion to give 
to the arrangement the appearance and form of law — the dress 
and outside prescribed by the charter; but declaring at the same 
time that the whole plan was assented to, that its whole sub- 
stance and spirit were preserved, and that the views and wishes 
of the Faculty would be carried into effect by the Trustees. 
Now it was an essential part of the plan of the Medical Faculty 
that degrees should be bestowed upon those students who in 
their opinion, after examination by them , should merit the same; 
the success of the College would greatly depend upon the man- 
ner in which this duty should be performed, and none were 
competent to perform it but physicians. But the charter of 
Hampden Sidney required (97 Hcning's Statutes, p. 273,) that 
the president and Trustees of that College, or any seven of them, 
should meet for the examination of candidates for degrees, and 
might confer them on such students as in their opinion should 
merit the same. How was this apparent conflict between the 
pla7i and the charter to be reconciled? The plan submitted 
proposed to leave in the trustees no discretion about the confer- 
ring of degrees upon those duly examined and passed by the 
Medical Faculty. The charter gave the power of conferring 



16 

degrees to the Trustees, and to them only. Now, the way in 
which the trustees proposed to reconcile the charter and the plan 
was to reserve the legal power to the Trustees, to be exercised 
through the aid and instrumentality of the medical professors, 
the 1 rustees, through the president, giving a pledge that the de- 
grees would always be conferred in pursuance of the recommen- 
dation of the Medical Faculty. And the practice under the 
arrangement has been uniformly in accordance with this inter- 
pretation of it. 

So, in like manner, it is believed, that the Medical Faculty 
proposed and intended to leave no discretion with the Trustees 
about the appointment of professors. Their hands were to con- 
fer, it is true, the commission or formal appointment — but it 
was to be done in pursuance of the recommendation or nomina- 
tion of the Faculty. There was, as already stated, no objection 
to this on the part of the trustees ; the only difficulty in carrying 
it into effect, grew out of the terms of the charter, and that diffi- 
culty was overcome precisely in the manner above explained 
with reference to conferring degrees^ by leaving the formal ap- 
pointment in the Trustees to satisfy the terms of the charter, and 
by agreeing at the same time that the actual choice and selection 
should be made through the instrumentality of the Faculty. 
The language ot the assurance of president Carroll upon this 
point, is, ** you can appoint the men you wish immediately un- 
der the power now granted you by our Board, and under a sim- 
ilar resolution which our Board passed in regard to the resignation 
of any of the professors now appointed, or any vacancy that may 
occur, you can fill that also immediately when it occurs, and our 
Board, when they meet, will in due form confirm your appoint- 
ment.''^ 

This view of the contract, cnnnot, it seems to me, be success- 
fully contradicted without showing that 1 am wrong in my 
whole view of the object and scheme of the proposed connec- 
tion, nor without assuming, what I cannot anticipate from the 
Trustees of Hampden Sidney, or from any candid person, that 
the letter of president Carroll to Dr. Warner, communicatmg 
officially the action of his Board, was both unauthorized and 
false. 

This view of the contract is confirmed by all the past action 
of both parties up to June last. All the nominations of the Fac- 
ulty have been from time to time confirmed, nor was any attempt 
ever made in the Board of Trustees, till now, to set aside the 
nomination of the Faculty and appoint a professor not nomina- 
ted by them, except on the occasion of the nomination of Dr. 
Gibson, in 1847, v/hen a supposed violation of form and courtesy 
on the part of the Faculty gave occasion for such an attempt; 
and even then the attempt was rebuked by the almost unani- 
mous voice of the Board, and such assurances were given by 



17 

their secretary to the Faculty as quieted all fear on their part 
that might have been excited by that novel incident. 

Under my view of the contract then, as originally made and 
understood between the parties, and as followed by their prac- 
tice, the Trustees were not expected or intended to consider and 
decide upon the testimonials and evidences of qualification of 
the respective candidates for professorships. Such testimonials, 
I am informed, except in one instance, were not sent to them. 
The Trustees were invested by the contract with no discretion to 
refuse the appointment to one regularly nominated, much less 
to appoint one not nominated. 

It is true that Dr. Maupin, in a letter to President Green, 
dated the 9th May 1 853, seems to suppose that the Trustees might 
refuse to confirm the appointment in a case (which he admits is 
hardly supposable) where the nominee is a person notoriously im- 
moral or deficient. I think that even in this he is wrong, if the 
question depends, as it doubtless does, upon the original con- 
tract and understanding. It is enough, however, to say, that 
as that was a case wholly improbable, so it was not provided for. 

It is impossible to concede the right of the Trustees to disre- 
gard the nomination of Dr. Scott, in this case, without conceding 
such a right to exist in all cases: and that is equivalent to 
abandoning altogether the right of nomination (and virtually 
of appointing) which was intended to be left with the Faculty. 

And, in my opinion, it was no more contemplated by the con- 
tract that the Trustees should in any case appoint a professor, 
not nominated by the Faculty, than that they should confer the 
degree of doctor of medicine upon persons not examined and 
recommended for degrees by the Medical Faculty. The one 
seems to me just as palpable a violation of the original arrange- 
ment as the other. 

I have as yet expressed no opinion upon the question, whether 
this whole contract and arrangement was a legal one or not. I 
have only been considering its construction and effect upon the 
hypothesis that it was legal and valid. 

If in making it the Trustees transcended the authority of their 
charter, or if, though the Trustees had a right to create this med- 
ical department, and to make the arrangement to which they 
gave their assent, yet still some technical rule of law, growing 
out of the liuctuating nature of the body of medical professors,' 
and their want of a separate charterof their own, should prevent 
these professors from asserting their rights in a court of justice, 
so that, from either cause, there would be a want of legal remedy 
and redress for violations of the actual contract, still, it seems 
to me, there can be no doubt that so long as the connection 
originally formed between Hampden Sidney and the Medical 
School continues, the Trustees are bound by good faith, if by 
no other laW; to observe and abide by that contract, and to per 



18 

mit the Medical Faculty to continue to enjoy all those privileges 
Vv^hich were promised to them. If the law affords no redress, 
then the obligations of good faith become the stronger, and there 
should be the greater caution on the part of those who have 
power over interests which have been confided to their protec- 
tion. I am far from supposing that the Board of Trustees would, 
knowingly and wilfully, violate good faith, but I make these 
remarks to show the delicacy of the interests which are involved, 
and to rebut any idea that the Trustees are at liberty to violate 
the original understanding and contract because doubts may 
now be entertained about the strict legality of the contract. 

I confess I have some doubt whether the charter of Hampden 
Sidney College authorized the Trustees to establish this medical 
department at Richmond, or any medical department of this Col- 
lege at all. If it be true that the Trustees possessed no such 
power, then the whole arrangement possessed no legal validity, 
and the Trustees had not any legal power or authority either to 
appoint medical professors or confer medical degrees. 

Perhaps the legal existence of the Medical College at Rich- 
mond, as an authorized branch or department of Hampden Sid- 
ney, may be regarded as recognized or established by the various 
acts of assembly above mentioned, passed in favor of that depart- 
ment or its Faculty. And though that question may not be 
altogether free from doubt, I am strongly inclined to the opinion 
that such is their eifect, especially when it is considered that 
the affairs of the Medical College had been, before the passage 
of these acts, several times brought to the notice of the legislature 
by the petitions of its Faculty, and one or more committees of 
that body had enquired into its condition. And I think ^ that 
if those acts are to be construed as giving legal sanction to a 
connection previously illegal, they must be regarded as sanction- 
ing it as it then existed; that is, as sanctioning and giving legal 
validity to the whole contract or arrangement by which that 
department was established, and under v/hich it had been in fact 
governed and managed. The legislature certainly seems to 
have dealt with the Medical Faculty as a perpetual body, and 
as one having, to some extent at least, an independent existence, 
having power to make contracts and obtain loans. Their loans 
were to the Medical Faculty, and the security which the Lite- 
rary Fund, under the direction of the legislature, took for those 
loans, was taken partly from the Medical Faculty as an organ- 
ized body, who as such gave a lien upon their real estate, and 
partly from the individual professors, who gave their bonds. 
These acts certainly recognize the Medical Faculty as a body 
having or intended to have rights of property in their land and 
twiildings, and I think constitute them a quasi corporation, hav- 
ing a right to sue for any invasion of their rights of property j 
and if they have a legal existence as an organized body, capa- 



19 

ble of maintaining suits^ they may probably sue the Trustees 
for a violation of the contract which secured to the Medical Fac- 
ulty the right of choosing or nominating the professors to be 
appointed. 

I think the Medical Faculty may refuse to recognize the ap- 
pointment of Dr. Wilson ; which I regard as entirely illegal ; and 
if they think it necessary to insist upon having their own nomi- 
nation confirmed by the Board of Trustees, I think their proper 
remedy in court will be a suit in equity against the President 
and Trustees of Hampden Sidney College^ to compel a specific 
execution of the contract in that regard. 

The Medical Faculty also desire our views with regard to 
their rights of property. Upon that subject I may be more brief. 

It was the original intention and part of the original plan ap- 
proved by the Trustees of Hampden Sidney College, that the 
property, whether real or personal, contributed by the medical 
professors or their friends for the use of the medical school, 
should be the private property of the individual professors of 
that school. In respect to that property so contributed, they 
became partners ; they owned it as a partnership merely ; it did 
not become a part of the corporate funds of Hampden Sidney 
College. When any professor died or resigned, compensation 
was made to him or his representatives for his share of the pro- 
perty, and the new professors , as they were appointed, were se- 
verally let into an interest in it upon fair terms, arranged from 
time to time among the members of the faculty. And such, 
doubtless, is still the situation of all the personal property at- 
tached to the College ; the professors own it as private individu- 
als connected by a partnership. As to the real estate, that too 
has been always kept separate from the corporate property of 
Hampden Sidney College, but the title to it is governed by the 
provisions of the deed before mentioned, executed by T. T. 
Giles and others, on the 4th July 1844. Under that deed the 
land and buildings are held by the Literary Fund, first as a se- 
curity for Ihe repayment of the loans of $15,000 and $10,000, 
made up by that fund, and secondly, for the use and benefit of 
the Richmond Medical College ; that is, of the Faculty of that 
College and their lawful successors for the purposes of the Col- 
lege. And the deed gives to the president and directors of the 
Literary Fund a right, in case there should be a controversy 
between two bodies, each claiming to be the lawful successors 
of the Medical Faculty, to decide the question between them 
and give possession accordingly, until the controversy shall be 
judicially decided. 

I have already said that I think the acts of assembly concern- 
ing the Richmond Medical College, especially those providing 
for the loans to that College from the Literary Fund and direct- 
ing the money lent to be invested in land and buildings for the 



20 

use and benefit of that College, sufficiently recognize and estab- 
lish the right of the Medical Faculty to such land and buildings. 
That right is a perpetual right of the Medical Faculty and their 
lawful successors. Who are their lawful successors from time 
to time, will depend, so long as the present connection between 
the Medical Department and Hampden Sidney continues in force, 
upon the questions already discussed concerning the right of 
nomination and appointment. As far as the use and control of 
the property are concerned, no practical question is likely to arise 
so long as the doubt about the validity of any appointment ex- 
tends to only one or two members of the Faculty, as the voice 
of the majority will always prevail. But if any unhappy quar- 
rel should arise between the present Medical Faculty and the 
Board of Trustees, and that Board should undertake to remove 
the present members of the Medical Faculty and appoint others, 
a question as to the legality of such a proceeding would probably 
arise ; and that question, as far as the rights of the claimants to 
the property embraced by the deed of Giles and others, might 
be referred by either party to the President and Directors of the 
Literary Fund or to a court of justice. 

I have already expressed the opinion that the Trustees have, 
under the arrangement of 1837, no power to appoint professors 
not nominated by the Medical Faculty. If this be true, the 
appointment of all not so nominated would be illegal, so that 
those persons who may be appointed "vvithout such previous 
nomination, cannot, I think, be justly considered lawful succes- 
sors of the present Faculty. If that be so, and the Trustees 
have the power to remove the present Faculty at their pleasure, 
and proceed to exercise that right, then the Medical Faculty of 
Hampden Sidney College will be extinct, without the power of 
revival, and no body but the legislature will be able to restore 
the succession thus broken. 

Whether the Trustees have the power to remove any of the 
professors of the Medical Faculty, is a question which it is prob- 
ably unnecessary to discuss. If the question depended alone 
upon the charter of Hampden Sidney College it v/ould be easy 
to answer that they Piave the right to remove, for good cause ; 
of which good cause they would probably be, in law, the only 
judges, and no appeal would lie from their decision; but the 
question is complicated by the provisions of the very peculiar 
arrangement between the Trustees on the one hand and the 
Medical Faculty on the other, which created a relation between 
the Trustees and Medical Faculty different from that which ex- 
isted between the Trustees and the Faculty of Arts. Subject 
to such conditions as were made matter of express regulation at 
the time of the contract, the whole government and all the inter- 
ests of the Medical School were guaranteed to the Medical 
Faculty by the terms of the arrangement , and it seems to me 



21 

wholly inconsistent with those terms, and with the spirit of the 
arrangement, to suppose that the Trustees retained a power which 
in effect cancelled all their concessions and guarantees, and 
placed the Medical Faculty completely at their mercy, viz : the 
absolute power of removal. We cannot think that any fair con- 
struction of the arrangement would give the Trustees any power 
to remove a professor, exeept at the instance of a majority of the 
Faculty itself. 

While, therefore, I do not perceive that the rights of property 
of the Medical Faculty are in danger, 1 cannot forbear to ex- 
press my regret that rights so valuable and important to the 
Medical Faculty, and the City of Richmond, and the State at 
large, as those which I have been considering, should be the 
subject of any uncertainty at all ; and that their muniments 
should consist of documents informal and perishable, and in part 
of facts liable to be forgotten or misunderstood. These consid- 
erations seem to suggest the importance of obtaining from the 
legislature either an independent charter for the Medical Col- 
lege, or an act declaring the terms of the connection between 
Hampden Sidney College and the Medical Departm^ent. 

Respectfully, 

G. N. JOHNSON. 
Richmond, 20th July, 1853. 



23 



OPINIOxN OF MR, MORSON, 



I have carefully read and considered the case stated and the 
legal opinion given by Geo. N. Johnson j Esq., in the matter of 
difference between the Trustees of Hampden Sidney College 
and the Medical Faculty connected with the branch of that 
College established in the city of Richmond, and I have no 
hesitation in expressing my general concurrence in the opinion 
prepared b}^ Mr. Johnson. For greater distinctness, however, 
it may not be out of place for me to say, that I regard the con- 
stituted authorities of Hampden Sidney as having come under 
a pledge and an agreement, upon their acceptance of the propo- 
sition which was made to them for the establishment of a Me- 
dical Department in the city of Richmond, not to interfere with 
the rights of property of those who made that proposilion, or 
of their successors, either in respect of realty or personalty ac- 
quired for the establishment or keeping up of the said depart- 
ment ; and furthermore, not to interfere with the rights of 
nomination and appointment by the said parties and their suc- 
cessors of the persons to fill the professorships in the Medical 
Department in question ; and in my opinion a court of chancery 
ought to compel, and would compel, the Trustees of Hampden 
Sidney to observe and keep that pledge, and would grant an 
injunction to restrain them and any person or persons acting in 
concert with them, from any interference in violation of the 
pledge given, I think the proceeding in a court of equity 
would be the appropriate mode of seeking relief on the part of 
the Medical Professors, rather than attempting to resort to a 
mandamus. 

ARTHUR A. MORSON. 

July 20, 1853. 



23 



REPLY OF THE FACULTY 

TO THE 

MEMORIAL OF TWENTY-TWO PHYSICIANS OF RICHMOND. 



Certain physicians of the city of Richmond have prepared 
and published an elaborate document, in the form of a memorial 
to the Trustees of Hampden Sidney College, but really de- 
signed to influence and forestall public opinion, upon the ques- 
tions which have arisen between the Faculty of the Medical 
College and the Trustees of Hampden Sidney, growing out of 
the refusal of the Trustees to confirm the nomination made by 
the Faculty to fill the chair of physiology, and the appointment 
of another gentleman not nominated or recommended by the 
Faculty. We say the design was to influence public opinion, 
because that is the fair inference from its publication. If it had 
been intended for the Trustees only, it would have been sent 
to them alone. It appears too, from the statements of the pub- 
lished memorial, that this interference of these twenty-two me- 
dical gentlemen in the aflairs of the Medical College, and the 
discharge by the Trustees of their official duties, is not the first ; 
for they admit that when the Trustees were about to act upon 
the nomination of the Faculty of the Medical College, these 
self constituted guardians of the public interest, not content 
with recommending Dr. Wilson, sent also to the Trustees a 
memorialinstructing them in the ^^ principles involved in the 
election." And now, after having instructed the Trustees, 
these same modest gentlemen have kindly volunteered to in- 
struct the public at large, upon questions, not of blistering, 
purging or bleeding, not involving medical diagnosis or surgical 
skill, but questions of law and contract, of private right and 
public expediency. We admit the right of every individual in 
the community to discuss matters of public concern ; and yet, 
under cover of this right great private injury may be meditated 
and accomplished. And though the memorialists profess to be 
governed only by a view to the public benefit and a devotion to 
principle, their extraordinary activity and zeal in this matter, 
out-running that of the rest of the community, might well give 
rise to the suspicion that they are inflnenred, perhaps uncon- 
sciously, by private and selfish ends. In this case the private 
rights and interests of the undersigned, the Professors of the 
Medical College, were deeply involv^ed in the questions dis- 
cussed, while the physicians, who have voluntarily in terferea, 
had no other rights in regard to the subject than any other citi- 



24 

zens of the State. If the Trustees of Hampden Sidney are 
worthy of that confidence which these gentlemen seek to re- 
pose in them, then we think they might and ought to have been 
left to the independent exercise of their own judgment about 
this matter, undisturbed by persuasions and arguments and a 
long array of medical names and other influences from without. 
While, therefore, we have always desired and still desire to cul- 
tivate amicable relations with these gentlemen, we cannot avoid 
expressing our surprise at this combination against us, its un- 
called for interference, its industry, activity and pertinacity. 
They were not satisfied with a single victory ; it was not enough 
for them that they had got the Board of Trustees committed to 
Dr. Wilson, and that his personal acquaintance with the mem- 
bers of the Board (to say nothing about any closer connection,) 
were such as to give him a formidable advantage over his com- 
petitor ; they thought it necessary also to add an elaborate ar- 
gument, and the force of public opinion, to prevent the Trus- 
tees from reconsidering and reversing their action. While we 
thmk that, in justice to us and to themselv^es, the Board of 
Trustees ought to reconsider and change their recent action, 
we do not avoid the tribunal of public opinion. We have a 
firm and abiding confidence in the good sense and justice of 
the community at large, and we believe that when the facts 
come to be fully known the popular verdict will be in favor of 
our rights, as we understand and maintain them. 

We think the argument or ^^ memorial" of the twenty-two 
physicians is erroneous both in its facts and in its reasonings. 

The great and fundamental error in all that has been written 
on th<'t side of the question, is in assuming that the question is, 
What is the best system of making appointments of professors 
in a Medical College? And tiiese medical gentlemen say they 
will never consent to have the appointments to professorships in 
the Richmond Medical College made in the manner in which 
they have always heretofore been made, because they do not 
approve of that particular mode of making the appointments. 
In other words they treat it as an open question, as a mere 
question of expediency, or (as they choose to call it) of princi- 
ple. They regard the Trustees as at perfect liberty to make the 
appointment in what they consider the best mode, uninfluenced 
by anything that has heretofore been done or agreed to be done. 
They view the question in the light of general expediency alone, 
regardless of all private rights and vested interests^ acquired by 
contract or otherwise ; and not only so, but they seem to have 
persuaded themselves that no other mode of appointment but 
that which they prefer can be possible, consistently with general 
principles of law. What they call a ^^ close corporation" among 
literary institutions, that is, one whose authorities are ^^ self ap- 
pointing and self perpetuating," they look upon as a monster 



25 

which the law cannot recognize ; but they forget, in using that 
argument, tliat the very tribunal to which it was addressed was 
just such a monster. Under the charter of Hampden Sidney, . 
all vacancies occurring in the Board of Trustees are filled by 
the remaining members of the Board, so that the Board is, and 
always has been, ^^ self-appointing and self-perpetuating ;" and 
yet, ever since the year 1783, the legislature and the State have 
acquiesced in a charter containing that principle. If our medi- 
cal friends, who have no other aim or object in this matter but 
the triumph of principle, will set about amending the charter of 
Hampden Sidney in this respect, and open the appointment of 
Trustees practically to all the good people of the commonwealth 
cf every religious denomination, we apprehend that there will 
be no more earnest opponents of the change than the Trustees 
of Hampden Sidney College itself; and the Trustees would be 
right in resisting it, because, though the mode of filling vacan- 
cies allowed by the charter may have been objectionable, and 
may have been in fact abused so as to place the institution under 
the control of a single religious sect, yet time has sanctioned 
both the original error and the subsequent usurpation. Private 
property has been given to the institution upon the faith that the 
charter would not be altered in this respect, and upon keeping 
that faith the very existence of Hampden Sidney depends. Wild 
and ruthless, tyrannical and indefensible, would be the innova- 
tion, which would strip that venerable institution of its char- 
ter, its franchises and its property, because of its violation of 
this abstract principle of policy which is now so much magni- 
fied and lauded. But if the principle is so important that it 
must be carried out at all hazards, regardless of plighted faith 
and all interests, public and private, which may be opposed to 
the change, then consistency and principle both demand that 
the reform should be complete : it should be applied alike to the 
parent institution and the medical department; and when that 
comes to be tried it will be found that the pruning knife will 
not do : the whole tree being infected with the same disease 
which was discovered in the obnoxious branch, the axe must 
be laid to its root. We would respectfully warn the Trustees 
to pause and ponder upon the consequences to which the inter- 
ference of their volunteer medical friends may lead them. 

It maybe said that the principle of self-perpetuation is not so 
objectionable in a board of trustees as in a faculty of pro- 
fessors. In our opinion, it is far more so. A board of trus- 
tees or visitors, having no actual interest in making the best 
appointments, have no sufficient check against the tendencies 
to nepotism, favoritism and party or sectarian bias, which are 
apt to afiect injuriously the constitution and the action of such 
boards. If the power of appointment, however, rests wholly or 
chiefly with tlie faculty itself, and they aie not salaried officers, 



26 

but derive their income from the students' fees, then their in- 
terests are identified with the interests of the institution, and 
they will make such appointments as in their opinion will com- 
mand the confidence of the community and best promote the 
success of the College. Trustees or visitors might gratify a per- 
sonal partiality, or provide for a relation or connexion, or yield 
to the influence or solicitations of the friends of a popular indi- 
vidual, or even serve their own private interests in making a bad 
appointment, and would not be the losers by it ; but the mem- 
bers of a faculty, whose daily bread depended upon the pros- 
perity and success of their college, have the strongest of all mo- 
tives to make no appointment but such as will conduce to that 
prosperity and success — to look alone to the qualification of the 
candidate, his merit, talent, learning, character and reputation, 
and to disregard all adventitious circumstances which ought 
never to control, but yet so frequently do control, appointments 
to office. Such being the aim and motive of the faculty in making 
appointments, the only other practical question is, whether that 
body is as competent to make proper selections of professors to 
fill vacancies, as a Board of Trustees appointed from the com- 
munity at large, without any particular reference to their medi- 
cal knowledge or their acquaintance with medical men? The 
mtelligent mind can give but one answer to that question, and 
it has been conceded by the memorialists that '' they," the fa- 
culty of the Medical College, " are better judges of the qualifi- 
cations of aspirants than any body wholly unprofessional." 

We are unable to perceive that any other principle is involved 
in this question, (supposing it to be an open and original one,) 
but the principle of making the appointment in the mode which 
promises most advantage and success to the College, and through 
it the greatest benefit to the public at large. If it be true, then, 
in the case of a Medical Faculty, that that body itself has 
stronger inducements than any other to make good appoint- 
ments, and is more competent to make them than a body of 
trustees chosen from the community at large, it follows that the 
power of appointment ought to reside in the former rather than 
in the latter body. 

But it is argued by the memorialists, that though the Faculty 
of the Medical School are more conipetent to n>ake good ap- 
pointments than any body of men wholly unprofessional, they 
are not more competent than the rest of the medical profession. 
What then would they have us do ? Shall the power of ap- 
pointment be vested in '' the rest of the profession," or, as that 
is a rather numerous and indefinite body, shall it be given to 
the twenty-two memoriahsts ? Is that the drift of the argument? 
Are the Trustees of Hampden Sidney to resign their places and 
powers to the viginti- duumvirate — the all-knowing twenty-two ? 
Not, we presume, for all purposes, but whenever a vacancy in 



•27 

the Medical College occurs, then, for the time, the Trustees are 
to yield their judgment and discretion to their twenty-two Me- 
dical advisers — a self-appointed and self-perpetuating oligarchy 
of the Medical Faculty of Richmond, as distinguished from the 
Faculty of the Medical College of Richmond. And this is the 
very thing which has been done, or sought to be done, by these 
gentlemen in this instance. This self-appointed body of ^' out- 
siders," as they have been called, having designated Dr. Wilson 
in the beginning as the person to be appointed, having done so 
without any consultation with the members of that Faculty with 
whom he was to act and whose interests were to be aifected by 
the appointment, and without any regard to the necessity of 
harmony among the members of such a Faculty — having nomi- 
nated him and procured his appointment, they will not even 
suffer the Trustees to reconsider the matter, at the instance of 
those whose interests are vitally affected, and who were unheard 
and unrepresented before the Trustees, resting upon the assur- 
ances they had received from the President and other Trustees 
that there was no danger of the appointment being conferred 
upon one who had not the nomination of the Faculty of the 
Medical College. It seems to us that these gentlemen have 
nullified in practice the principle which they advocate, and that 
they have sought, without any color of authority to do what 
they will not suffer us to do, though we have on our side the 
authority of contract and usage. 

If then there is nothing inexpedient in leaving the nomina- 
ting power with the Faculty of the College, what other objec- 
tion is there to it? It is denounced as a monopoly, and the 
memorialists ask that the doors of the School may be thrown 
open to the whole profession, that all may have a fair chance of 
being appointed to its professorships. 

The School is not a monopoly, because no exclusive privileges 
are granted and guaranteed to it. The legislature may at any 
time grant similar privileges to any other medical school, even 
in the same city. It is not more a monopoly than any other 
corporation, whether for banking, internal improvement, mining 
or anything else. Nor can the manner of appointing the pro- 
fessors, whether by the Trustees or the Professors, make it 
more or less a monopoly. You may say, it is true, by a false use 
of terms, that in the one case the Faculty have a monopoly of 
the appointing power ; but you may say in the other, just as well, 
well, that the TrusteeshcLVQ a monopoly of the appointing power. 

But are the doors of the Faculty closed against a free compe- 
tition and impartial choice more than those of the Trustees 
would be? How can that be? If it be true that the Faculty 
are only interested in making the best appointments, and are 
competent to make them, will they not have the same range of 
selection that the Trustees would have? Will they be apt to 



28 

be influenced by anything more than talent, learning and me- 
rit? Look at the appointments that have heretofore been made ; 
it is not for us to say that they have been good, but we do say 
they have been made exclusively with a view to the supposed 
fitness of the appointee for the place. With what fairness or 
justice then can it be said that any portion of the medical pro- 
fession is excluded from a fair chance of being appointed to a 
vacant professorship ? They may exclude themselves by acts 
of unprovoked hostihty against the institution, but the Faculty 
can have no desire to exclude from their appointments any one 
who would adorn and exalt the School, if he be a person with 
whom they could act in harmony, and who seeks or is willing 
to accept the aDpointment in the usual way. 

So far we have followed and answered the argument on the 
other side, treating this question of the mode of appointment as 
an open and original one ; and we trust we have shown that 
even if it be so treated and considered, there is no principle of 
law nor any consideration of expediency which ought to pre- 
vent the power of filling vacancies from being left with the Fa- 
culty ; while there are various considerations which recommend 
that system as the one most apt to procure good appointments 
and preserve consistency and harmony among the professors 
themselves and in the government of the College. 

But that is by no means the true issue. The question of the 
mode of appointment is not an open or original one. The ques- 
tion really raised by the recent action of the Trustees in reject- 
ing Dr. Scott and appointing Dr. Wilson, and our remonstrance 
against it, is. What are the existing relations between the Fa- 
culty of the Medical College and the Trustees of Hampden 
Sidney College? In other words, What was the nature of the 
original arrangement between the Medical Professors and those 
Trustees, and what rights have been acquired by those profes- 
sors, as individuals or as a medical faculty, under it? Upon this 
subject we have taken legal advice, and the opinion of the coun- 
sel whom we have consulted is, that upon the establishment of 
the Medical Department, in December 1837, there was such an 
arrangement and understanding, in fact, such a contract, be- 
tween the Trustees and the Medical Faculty, as secured to the 
latter substantially the power of appointing professors and con- 
ferring degrees. As that opinion contains a full statement of 
the facts upon which it is founded, and probably will be pub- 
lished, we will not now attempt to go over the same ground. 
We will here only state briefly, that the proposition made to the 
Trustees asked their consent to the establishment of a Medical 
School here, under cover of their charter, to be conducted for 
the present by six professors ; that four of those physicians (Drs. 
Warner, Bohannan, Chamberlayne and Cullen,) were proposed 
to fill four of the chairs, and their appointment constituted an 



29 

essential part of the plan ; that the nominations for vacancies 
were to be made by the Faculty, and to be confirmed of course 
by the Trustees ; that candidates for degrees were to be examined 
by the Faculty, and diplomas to be given by the Trustees to 
those recommended by the Faculty for that purpose ; that all 
the expenses of the school were to be borne by the Faculty, and 
ail property necessary for its operation was to be contributed by 
them or obtained by their exertions, and that such property 
should not belong to the corporation of Hampden Sidney ] that 
the general government and management of the school and its 
affairs should be conducted by the Faculty ; that any new 
rules and regulations in respect thereto might be adopted by 
the Faculty, subject to the approval of the Board of Trustees : 
and that the Faculty should have the exclusive regulation of 
their own fees, within a certain fixed maximum. It seems to 
have been an essential part of the plan, that though the com- 
missions or formal appointments of the Professors, and the 
diplomas to graduates, should be conferred by the Trustees, 
who alone had the legal power to confer them, yet that the 
Trustees would in all such cases act in conformity v/ith the 
nominations and recommendations of the Faculty. That this 
plan and proposition was accepted and agreed to by the Trus- 
tees, and intended to be carried into effect in every part, we have 
the clearest evidence furnished by the letters of Dr. Carroll, the 
President of the Bonrd of Trustees, to Drs. Warner and Bohaii- 
nan, written immediately after the action of the Board upon 
this subject, and explaining fully and minutely all that the 
Board did. It is true that the Board, in adopting the regula- 
tions and resolutions sent to them for their approval, changed 
their language, so far as they related to conferring degrees and 
appointing Professors, so as to make the form of the arrange- 
ment more closely correspond with the language of the charter 
which gave the legal power of conferring degrees and appointing 
professors to the Trustees ; but that the proposition of the 
Faculty was in substance agreed to, that the Trustees intend- 
ed and agreed to give effect in all cases to the nominations of the 
Faculty in respect to degrees and appointments, was made 
known to the Faculty by the express assurance of the Board, 
through their President, in the two letters above mentioned. 
These assurances were satisfactory, and in the full fliith and con- 
fidence that they would be observed, the College was organized 
and a full corps of Professors embarked their lives and fortunes 
in the enterprise, and dedicated their best energies to building 
up the institution. And those assurances were strictly observed 
from the foundation of the Medical School, in 1837, until the 
meeting of the Trustees in June last — a space of more than fit- 
teen years. Not only was the government, management and 
control of the Medical College left exclusively in the hands of 



30 



the Professors ia all other matters, without interference 
inquiry on the part of the Trustees, but in the matter of confer- 
ring degrees and appointing piofessois the recommendations of 
the Faculty were invariably confinned. In regard to the four 
original proiessors, those proposed to the Trustees were all ap- 
pointed. With regard to the two original vacancies, it was per- 
tecdy understood that they were to he filled by the Faciity. 
They were so filled accordingly, without consulting the Tms- 
tees. and the appointments were in due time confirmed. All 
the subsequent vacancies, except the one now in question, were 
in like manner filled by the selection and nomination of the 
Faculty, confinned afterwards by the Trnstees. Thus were 
successively nominated and confirniei. Pr::ri?: s WymaUj 
Gibson, Carter P. Johnson, and Tu: ^ :':.- e?js 1S43. 

'4T, '48and '49. During all tlii? :::::- ±r T: ,::^55 did not 
assume, cla :: vxir he "^ :: z..::.^ ?:?::ies. in 
any other t: :;: ; : :l :.: : ::^ : r :_ le :-::.:. :::.: :;anon 
of 'the Fac 
the neces? 
willing :: 
for tha: r 
beexh: : 
Faculr:. 

It is : : 
though /.: :} 5 
refuse : : z:: 
or for a;: :: ee 
Truster^::Df: 
Dr. C?:::::.:-: 



lem , or conduct : . . r : { f ^ 
e :: require the tes anion::: 

:tni : but all these things 



ti'ath and candor. 

IS no reservation : : 

: :he nomination : 

. :n -::e action : ::: 



that al- 



1 :n : : : : s ro 



::::ea oy 
Faculty 



ab-ise :: ::..:: y:~e:. : 
iiiUy lei^Sc : :: :h:.n 
proceed to :::n: :n: 
they might simply reii 
nominated and require 
FaonliT. Vr±-s±[^ 
Dr. Drkper, :_.n ^:::":: 



T; 



:" nvh : ::::. right- 
:::^-::. :^ in^: case. 
: :nem, but that 
::n s: improperly 
: 'zz naje by the 
: ir.. i: :: rl from 
H:.:n:::":.: S:dney, 



*A re: 
tees tha: 



proof of ibe clear a 
: : : : :: of professors to 

':- le fact that whr 



.e Trus- 



ir:' 



:^ Dr. W 



receiTcc :.ic er. :. 



-iicc: i; 10 vQi 



it hare been 
: ',' TTiffrt fro- 



31- 

now a professor of the medical department of the University 
of New York, who, taking a friendly interest in the establish- 
ment of our school at its commencement, kindly consented to 
take and did take the chief part in the negotiation between Dr. 
Warner and his associates and the Trustees, with a view to get 
the consent of the Trustees to the scheme and to settle the 
terms of the connection. Dr. Draper has recently been written 
to to obtain his recollection of what occurred, and to obtain any 
any documents in his possession relating to the subject. His 
letter in reply, dated the 29th July 1853, has been received, and 
is herewith pubhshed. We esteem that letter one of great in- 
terest and importance, and are glad that his recollection is so 
clear and positive. It will be seen that he states that ^^the in- 
tention of the parties was that the power of appointing profes- 
sors should be virtually in the Medical Faculty , and this was 
supposed to be carried out by granting to them the power of 
nomination, the Trustees reserving their chartered rights by 
electing. It was the understanding that these elections were to 
be merely confirmatory in their character ^ and that the nomination 
of the Faculty was not to be departed from, except for very grave 
and most obvious reasons. Even in that case, my understand- 
ing of it was, that the Faculty would be required to nominate 
again a different candidate. My recollection of these arrange- 
ments is clear, because at the organization of the medical de- 
partment of this University, which took place soon after, and 
in which I was the chief negotiator, the same principles were 
introduced, the example of the Richmond school being con- 
stantly before us. Those principles are still in operation here, 
and have never been questioned or departed from." 

Though it may be superfluous to add more on this subject, 
we desire to remark, in support of Dr. Draper's statement that 
the power reserved by the Trustees was merely confirmatory, 
that the v/hole scheme of the arrangement, evidenced by the 
recorded regulations and resolutions of the 1st December I83T, 
is full of this same principle of leaving the initiative, in fact, 
the active and actual performance of every duty, with the Fac- 
ulty, and the power of confirmation only to the Trustees. In 
some matters exclusive powers are granted to the Faculty : in 
other matters a power to affirm and to disaffirm is reserved to 
the Trustees. But no power to originate any measure, to do 
any original act, seems to have been reserved to the Trustees, or 
to have been intended to be exercised by them in respect to any 
matter whatsoever. 

This state of the relations between the Faculty and the 
Trustees was perfectly notorious, and yet was acquiesced m by 
the medical profession generally and by the public at large. 
To none was it better known, as we believe, than to many of 
the signers of the memorial. One of the twenty- two memo- 



3^ 

rialists, on a comparatively recent occasion, that is to say, in 
1849, when a vacancy occurred in the chair of the practice of 
medicine, was wiUing to have received a nomination at the 
hands of the Facuhy, if he could have obtained it with the full 
and free consent of all its members, and his language on that 
occasion was highly honorable to him. He said, in a letter to 
a member of the Faculty with whom he had conferred upon the 
subject, '^I would not willingly subject myself to the mortifi- 
cation of a refusal ; and if my appointment would not be agree- 
able to you and your colleagues, even could I secure it without 
your aid, it would give me no pleasure to receive it." We are 
sorry that he has now deemed it proper to aid and abet another 
in a course which he then eschewed for himself. 

Why did these medical gentlemen, who now object to the 
continuance of these relations between the Trustees and the 
Faculty, reserve their thunder for so late a day? Why did 
they suffer such a connection to be formed without resistance, 
and openly maintained in the face of the world for fifteen years 
without any fair, open and pubhc effort to destroy it? Grant 
that some of them had, on a former occasion, manifested pub- 
licly their disapprobation of another scheme bearing some re- 
semblance to this, yet in some respects different from it, yet 
they did nothing that we are aware of to prevent the consum- 
mation of this scheme -, their opposition to it, if there was any, 
apparently died away, the College was built up, grew and 
prospered, the Professors were left in the peaceful exercise of 
the rights which they claimed, they invested their time and mo- 
ney and incurred heavy obligations in the firm belief tliat their 
plans and their rights were secure, and there was nothing to 
prepare them or the public mind for the sudden and powerful 
combination which has been formed against them, or to Avarn 
them of the mine which has been prepared and exploded be- 
neath their feet. We were aware that we had incurred, without 
any sufficient cause, the hostility of a few members of the 
medical profession in this city, for whom we never have felt 
and therefore never expressed much respect ; but we never 
imagined that they would be able to procure the co-operation of 
men of such weight and influence as some of those who have 
been induced to join them, in any scheme that they might con- 
coct for our destruction. 

Those who have a weak cause will often catch at very fee- 
ble circumstances in the vain hope of sustaining it. Thus^, 
much stress is laid by the memorial upon the fact, that when 
Dr. Gibson, who was nominated by the Faculty in 1847 for the 
chair of surgery, was confirmed by the Board, four out of 
twenty-seven Trustees voted against Dr. Gibson and for 
another person. It is not wonderful that four Trustees could 
be found in 1847 to deny or refiise to yield to the Faculty's 



33 

rights of nomination, since as many as seven or nine out of 
twenty-seven were induced to do the same thing in 1853. The 
evidence only goes to the extent that in 1847 a small minority of 
the Board were disposed to deny or violate the original contract 
and understanding. But the proceedings of that very meeting, 
hy an overwhelming majority, vindicated the Faculty's right of 
nomination ; for the Board being a full one, all the other mem- 
bers of the Board, but the four, voted for the Faculty's nomi- 
nee, because he was their nominee, although the Faculty had 
in that case advertised Dr. Gibson as the professor before his 
confirmation and although his competitor was ^^an eminent 
Surgeon," and well known to the Board. All this is fully ex- 
plained in tne letter of Mr. Watkins, the secretary of the Board, 
who, in his letter communicating their action, states the facts 
that occurred, and adds, 'Hhe almost unanimous opinion of the 
Board is, that the nomination of the Faculty slwuld always be 
conpined'' ' . 

That vote was probably regarcle(*as a test vote, and as hav- 
ing settled the question then raised in favor of the Faculty, for 
afterwards the nominations of Dr. Carter P. Johnson and Dr. 
Tucker were confirmed as of course. 

But the memorahsts deny that the Trustees of Hampden 
Sidney had any right under their charter to grant to the Medi- 
cal Faculty the right of nomination, which is virtually the right 
of appointment. 

This is a legal question, of which neither the memoralists nor 
we are the best judges. We have been advised by counsel in 
whom we have confidence, that we have a right to enforce, in a 
court of justice, if we should desire to resort to that mode, com- 
pliance V\rith the agreement of the Trustees to leave to us the 
nomination of Professors, and to confirm our appointments. And 
why should it not be so ? The charter gives to the Trustees 
the legal power to appoint, but does not describe the mode in 
which the power shall be exercised. In establishing the Medi- 
cal Department, they agreed to exercise the power in that mode 
which, under the circumstances, was the most just, reasonable 
and equitable. They were not establishing a Department to be 
organized and sustained by their own corporate funds, and to be 
carried on as a part of the home establishment, but a distinct 
branch or colony, composed of private adventurers, who built 
and manned their own ship, and only asked permission to sail 
under the flag of the old College ; and can any one blame the 
Trnstees for accepting the compliment implied in the request, 
and granting a boon which reflected honor upon the parent in- 
stitution, while it entailed upon it no burden or expense? It is 
just that a self-sustaining colony should have a domestic legis- 
lature and government ; the mother country may protect and 
foster; but not control it, and the colony owes love and respect, 
o 



but not obedience. So the Trustees, in consenting to the es- 
tablishment of this Medical School, and having confidence in 
its organization and its future usefulness, might just as well en- 
gage to confirm the appointments of those recommended by 
the Faculty, as they might to confer degrees upon those recom- 
mended for degrees by the Medical Faculty or the Faculty of 
Arts — and there is no more violation of the charter in the one 
case than in the other. 

Besides, the question of power and law involved in the origi- 
nal arrangement between the Trustees and the Medical Facul- 
ty was one to be decided by the Trustees at the time of that 
arrangement. The subject was then fully considered and de- 
cided by them. They were as competent to decide it then as 
they are now, and they cannot now retract rights which they 
then conceded and have since repeatedly confirmed. 

If there was ever any legal doubt upon this question, we in- 
sist that it has been ended and put to rest by the subsequent 
and long acquiescence of the whole community, and especially 
by that of the legislature. The legislature has repeatedly re- 
cognized the separate existence of the Medical Faculty, by en- 
tertaining their petitions, granting their aid, and actually con- 
tracting with them. The petition in pursuance of which the 
first loan to the Faculty was made by the legislature, was one 
in the names of the six professors composing the Faculty, and 
signed by them, in which they state that thep had, in 1837, 
^'united to establish a medical institution in this city under 
the patronage and protection of the charter of Hampden Sidney 
College." The true nature of the connection between the 
Medical School and Hampden Sidney was not concealed from 
the legislature. Committees of the legislature were from time 
to time appointed, at the instance of the Medical Faculty, to in- 
quire into the condition of their school. A report of one of 
those committees, made at the session of 1840-'41, describes it 
'^as an authorized branch of Hampden Sidney," and as having 
been organized by the six first Professors, by their own ^'un- 
aided enterprise and talents," and ascribes the success of the 
School to^'the great industry and perseverance by which they 
had overcome most of the many obstacles they had to contend 
with." The loans made by the legislature were to the Medi- 
cal Faculty, and not to the Trustees of Hampden Sidney — thus 
recognizing the legal existence of the Medical College as a 
body capable of contracting ; and the Medical Facidty were to 
give a lien on the land and buildings intended to be purchased 
for the use of the Medical College, and to furnish personal se- 
curity also. 

After all these things, not to dwell upon the assurances which 
we have received from several successive Presidents of Hamp- 
den Sidney and all the Trustees with whom we ever conversed 



35 

upon the subject, prior to the meeting of the Board in June 
last; we could not entertain a doubt of the safety of our rights, 
and never, until very recently, had even a suspicion that there 
would be any attempt to interfere with them. 

Suppose, however, that there was any legal defect of power 
in the Trustees to make the arrangement and grant the conces- 
sion which they did, and that such defect has not been cured 
by subsequent acquiescence or by legislative enactment, still, 
as the right of nomination granted to us was an essential part 
of the arrangement, so long as the arrangement is in force 
that grant must be complied with, unless it be abandoned vol- 
untarily by us. The Trustees have no right to change the con- 
tract and make a new one for us, without our consent, upon the 
ground that the contract which was made is illegal. If there 
be any defect of power in the Trustees to cany into effect the 
arrangement, what remedy is more obvious and more easy, 
than ibr the parties, the Trustees and the Faculty, to go ami- 
cably together before the legislature, suggesting the defect 
feet and asking the legislature to cure it ? Does not good faith 
recommend such a course as that, in preference to a combi- 
nation with certain Richmond physicians, who are bitter ene- 
mies of the College as at present organized, with a view to ab- 
rogate the agreement which was made, to nullify the pledges 
v/hich were given, and in fact, to break down and destroy the 
Medical College itself, unless its present professors will yield to 
the storm which assails them, and vacate their places for those 
who covet them? 

The next feature of the memorial we shall notice, is its un- 
gracious and unjust effort to depreciate the value of the services 
we and our predecessors have rendered, and the burdens and 
expenses we have assumed in founding and sustaining the Medi- 
cal College. And we shall find upon enquiry, if we are not 
much mistaken, that this part of the memorial contains as much 
error of fact, and as much false coloring of whatever it gives of 
the truth, as if tlie memorialists had studied the art of misrep- 
resentation. 

They deny that they are ^^meddling indelicately in the maur 
agement of an enterprise based upon private capital and indi- 
vidual enterprise." The terms of denial seem to contain an 
implied admission, that if the enterprise was based upon private 
capital and individual enterprise, then their intermeddling is 
indelicate. 

Now what are the facts? 

By whom was the enterprise founded, and by whose labor 
and efforts sustained ? The report of the Legislative Commit- 
tee of 1840-'4l, ah'cady referred to, tells us it was organized 
by the six professors <' by their own unaided enterprise and 
talents;" that ''opposed by many obstacles of no ordinary 



36 

character, they have, by dint of great indcistry and persererance, 
yet quietly and unobtrusively, overcome most of them. 

Will our twenty- two friends listen to another witness, who 
speaks at a later date? we mean the Governor of the Common- 
wealth, who, in his annual message for lS49-'50, some years 
after the State loan to the Medical Faculty, speaks thus of the 
J-Iedical College and its Professois : 

'•' I also invite 3-our attention to the ^Medical College located 
in the City of Richmond. This institution was founded by in- 
dividual enterprise, and has been almost wholly sustained by 
ii Professors.'^ ^ What a direct contradiction is here, from the 
highest authority in the Commonwealth, of the assertions of 
the 22 doctors ! They say the Medical College is '^ a public 
institution, nursed and reared fi'om its infancy, upon public 
fa nds/' (fcc. The Governor declares it was founded by indi- 
vidual enterprise and has been almost wholly sustained by its 
professors. The Governor says further: ^^ The General As- 
sembly granted it (the Medical College,') loans from the Literary 
Fund amounting to $25,000, to de&ay the expense of erecting 
the College edifice, but required interest upon those loans to be 
paid by the Faculty. They have regularly complied with the 
requisition in good faith, although it has cost them t^ do this and 
meet other necessities of the institution since its estabhshment, 
one half of their entire professional fees. By such eiforts of 
its professors the institution has secured a firm place in the 
public confidence and respect, and reached a high degree of 
prosperity. The number of students is now larger than ever 
before, and there is good reason to anticipate continued and in- 
creasing success in the future.*' 

According to the Governor, then, the institution had not only 
been founded and sustained by the individual enterprise and 
efibrts of its professors, but had been by the same enterprise 
and efforts nursed out of its infancy into manhood, had attain- 
ed a high degree of success, had secured a firm place in the 
public confidence, and promised well for the future. Is it possi- 
ble to imagine a more complete refutation of the assertions of 
the memorialists ? 

But the Governor goes on to recommend to the legislature 
the release to the Faculty of the interest upon the loans. Does 
he do this with a view of changing in any way the organization 
or government of the College, or the mode of appointment of 
professors, or of abridging the rights and privileges of the Fac- 
ulty? By no means. The motives he holds out to the legis- 
lature are those of rewarding those Professors, who had done 
so good a work, enuring incidentally to the benefit of the State, 
and had borne such hea^y burdens in accomplishing that re- 
sult — and of increasing still further the prosperity and success 
of the institution, by pursuing a liberal and just course towards 



37 

the Professors. And in this, the course of the Governor was 
just the reverse of the course of the 22 memoriahsts, who pro- 
fess the same desire to promote the success of the institution, 
but endeavor to accomplish it by pursuing an ilhberal and un- 
just course towards the Professors. But hear the Governor's 
own words : ^' To reheve the FacuUy of this institution from 
paying the interest now required of them, would reb'eve them 
of a burden, which greatly depresses their energies and hangs 
heavily upon the prosperity of their College." [^^ Their Col- 
lege !" The Governor did not believe the College belonged to 
the cabal ot the 22, which fortunately was not then fully organ- 
ized, nor even to the Trustees, nor to the State, but he goes 
on :] '^ I think the measure would advance the interests of 
medical science in Virginia and be an act of justice and wise 
iiberality towards the Professors of that Institution. I recom 
mend it, therefore, to your favorable consideration." 

Now whatever abstract opinion the physicians of Richmond 
might entertain about the best principle or mode of appointing 
professors in such an institution, one would suppose they must 
have given a warm and hearty assent to the Governor's recom- 
mendation in favor of the professors, to relieve them and the in- 
stitution of a heavy burden, which interfered to some extent with 
its complete success ; and so we hope the greater part of them did. 
But it seems there were some even then so bitterly hostile to the 
Institution or its professors, that they opposed the petition of 
the Faculty and the recommendation of the Governor before the 
legislature. One among the 22 memorialists is recollected, 
who was busy about the senate chamber for that purpose. 
What arguments he used with the members we know not — 
whether that the Medical College ought not to receive aid, be- 
cause the power of filling vacancies resided with the professors, 
or because it was a private Institution ; but either argument is 
inconsistent with the present position of the 22. Another of 
the 22 is recollected to have opposed, in a newspaper article, 
the proposed relief to the Faculty. 

But the Legislature thought with the Governor and not with 
the 22, and therefore granted aid. 

The memorial, proceeding to details, estimates that we have 
expended not more than $5000 of our own money upon the 
College, while public authorities have contributed more than 
,$35,000. Even as to the $5000 they endeavor to produce the 
belief that no part of it has been spent by the Faculty upon 
the College. 

What we have said is, not that $5000, but that upwards of 
$3000 was expended by the members of the Faculty in aid of 
the State loan of $25,000, in completing and furnishing the 
building, in heavy grading, in building outhouses, surrounding 
the premises with a very substantial enclosure, etc. The con- 



38 

tract vriia Sievrartj tliG architect, lor building the principal edi- 
fice, was 823.800. Some extra work was atterwards ordered, 
somewhat increasing the amount, and then the painting, fur- 
nishing, grading and other works above mentioned, increased 
the expense to not less than 8*2S, 000. sothat.?3000 or more were 
paid by the Faculty out of their own pockets. And this state- 
ment agrees with that made by the Faculty m their petition to 
the legislature in December iS4-S, where it is stated that the 
sum so paid by the Faculty for the buildings. &c., over and 
above the s2o,000. was upwards of S'3000. Bui this is a small 
matter compared with the other exr»enses, labors, burdens and 
charges of the Faculty in sustaining the College. Tne memo- 
rialists forget that the College had been in operation six years 
b:fore the present college lot was purchased, or the loan obtain- 
ed, or the new buildings erected. In the meantime they had 
used for their College and infirmary the Union Hotel and' some 
adjoining buildings, which they rented, repaired, painted and 
furnished at considerable expense. For some years also the 
infirmary was a source of expense and considerable loss, and it 
lias never been a source of profit, as is erroneously supposed by 
the memorialists ; on the contrary not one cent of nett revenue 
has been received by us from it. When the loan from the S ate 
was obtained, so far from being a direct source of profit, it im- 
posed an additional burden in the shape of the annual payment 
of interest, from which we had in the beginning no expectation 
of being relieved. It is needless to enumerate pa.rticularly all 
the sources of expense, or the amount of each item ; it is 
enough to say that the College expenses, which the members 
of the Fa.cultypaid during the first eleven years, by assessments 
made upon them from time to time for that purpose, that is to 
sav, during the time that preceded the release of the interest 
071 the loans, amounted according to our records to 826.947 62 
Makiue the sum paid bv each member of the 

Faculty, - ' - - - 4,491 27 

Now during the same period, the fees received 

by the professor holding what was probably 

the most profitable chair,' amounted to - 10.357 50 



Balance or nett receipts ibr 11 yeai's - §5.566 23 

Making the average nett income from that chair 8533 29 — 
only 8533 29 per annum, tor services and labors in a position 
of great responsibility, requiring previous education, talents, en- 
ergy and industry, such as would, in any other profession or 
pursuit, win at least five fold that reward So much, then, of 
our labor, as was not adequately paid for, was given to the pub- 
lic : the public derived the benefit in the instruction of the 
students, in the public accommodation afforded by the infirmary 



39 

s.rtd in the money tliat was brought or retained here by this School, instead 
of being spent at Philadelphia or elsewhere out of the State. A very simple 
calculation will show that the money Vv'hich the Medical College, through the 
instrumentality of our labors, has saved to the State, is vastly greater than the 
^.25,000 lent by the State and the ^2000 given by the city — so that even if the 
State had given the ^25,000, we should still be the creditor upon the balance of 
advantages . 

But this is not all. In addition to the amount of College expenses paid by 
the Faculty out of their own pockets, or out of the fees which they received 
from the students for their courses of lectures, there should be added the who'e 
amount of the matriculation fees and diploma fees, all which are invariably 
applied to the expenses of the College. 

The matriculation fees for the first li years amounted to about $3,575 00 

And the diploma fees for the same time, to 4,925 00 

Together, 8,500 03 

And that sum, added to the above mentioned, 26,947 62 



Makes the amount of College expenses $35,447 62, 

But this is not yet all, for this sum of $35,447 62 includes a very 
small portion of the Infirmary expenses. The whole of the 
Infirmary fees has always been appropriated to the Infirmary 
expenses, and those fees for the first eleven years amounted 
to about p,000 per annum, or P3,000 00 

The total College expenses then, including the Infirmary ex- 
penses for 11 years, was $68,447 62 
Giving an average annual expenditure of $6,222 51 
Thus, of the total earnings of the Faculty for the first eleven years in fees of 
all sorts, derived from the College and Infirmary, by far the larger portion was 
consumed by the necessary expenses. 

There was at all times danger that the expenses might outrun the receipts ; 
the expenses were certain, the receipts uncertain ; and in some years the bal- 
ance in favor cf income was extremely small. Besides, there was the burden of 
a heavy debt hanging over our heads, wiiich was always, and still is, a source cf 
some anxiety. 

The memorialists seem to consider the principal of that debt, as well as the 
interest, virtually released. How they can say so in the face of a plain act of 
assembly to the contrary, we cannot understand. The ict releasing the interest 
expressly retains in force the obligation to pay the principal. We know that 
our bonds are held by the State for the amount, and that if we should go to the 
President and Directors of the Literary Fund and ask them to surrender or can- 
cel them, they would laugh in our faces at the absurdity of the request. Wc 
are bound for the $25,000. We know it and the memorialists know it Why 
then is it that they choose to assume that it is a gift, contrary to both the form 
and the intention of the transaction ? The State has been generous in respect 
to a part of the interest, and she may be, or she may not be in respect to the 
principal. But though we would be very happy to be relea-ed, we have not 
been, and the debt still remains. We have never regarded this debt as a light 
and trifling matter. We have always, since the debt was created, stipulated 
with every new member of the Faculty, as one of the conditions of his appoint- 
ment, that he should assume his proportional share of t})at debt and enter into 
bond accoi'dingly, and the exaction of that condition deprived us, much to our 
regret, of the power we should otherwise have had of securing the apjioint- 
ment and services of a very distinguished and able professor, who was willing 
to accept the appointment, if that condition was not insisted upon, and if sonic 
temporary exemption also should be granted him from the weight of the heavy 
current expenses. 

How then, stands the account? The memorialists say that our expenses have 
not been more than $.5000, if anything, while the City and State have given us 
about $,'}5,000. liut ttie fact Is that our College expenses, as explained above, 
were, for only ]1 years, about $68,447 62 

And the sum contributed by p\d)lic authorities within that time was only 2,000 GO 
Being the sum given by the city, and since that time the benefactions 

from the State have amounted to 4,500 00 

[being three years' interest on the $25,000.] 

Total public contributions to this date, $6,500 00 



40 

This view is not perfectly complete, for it omits some small matters of inter- 
est, taxes and water rent on the one side, and the heavier items of our expenses 
since 1849, and interest upon all our expenditures on the other, so that it is less 
favorable to us than if it were complete ; but it is sufficient to give some idea of 
the immense disproportion between the real burdens and expenses of the College 
and the donations which have been received from public sources. 

But if the gifts of the city and the State, in 1844 and 1850, had been ten time* 
as great as they Vvere, what would it prove in regard to the question under dis- 
cussion ? Why, if the Medical School, at the time of its foundation in 1837, and 
for seven years afterwards, was (as it must be conceded that it was) a work of 
private enterprise, reared and sustained by private funds only, and by reason 
thereof private rights became vested in the professors, those rights were not 
taken away by the public gift, especially as there was nothing in the form of the 
gift to indicate such an intention. It is impossible to perceive how a gift to the 
Medical Faculty, by the city or by the State, could have the effect of taking 
away any right from the Faculty, or of giving any new power to the Trustees of 
Kampden Sidney, who are not even named in these transactions, unless there 
was some such condition annexed to the gift. None such was expressed, and 
certainly none such can be implied from the mere act of giving, for a gift im- 
plies a benefit, not a burden. 

Our time and the reader's patience will not allow us to notice all the speci- 
mens of the candor and accuracy of these fault-finders ; some few others of 
them, however, must be noticed. 

It is gravely and positively alleged in the memorial, that the provisions of 
the acts of assembly authorizing the loans from the Literary Fund to the Fa- 
culty of the Medical College, that is to say, those provisions of said acts which 
required real and personal security to be furnished by the Faculty, have not 
been complied with. 

In what way have they not been ? Why, first, the act required that the Presi- 
dent and Directors of the Literary Fund should retain a lien upon the land, 
buildings, &c., in which the 25,000 should be invested. Was not that done ? — 
'•'Oh, no !" the twenty-two say, "instead of preserving the relations of debtor and 
creditor, between the Faculty and the Literary Fund, the conveyance was to the f 
Literary Fund in fee simple, directly and absolutely." Now, either the twenty- 
two did not read the deed which they profess to interpret, or their mistake in 
this matter is extraordinary and unaccountable. The deed answers the double 
purpose of a conveyance to the Faculty from Giles and others, the persons from 
whom the lot was bought by the Faculty, with the money given by the city, and 
of a mortgage by the Faculty to the Literary Fund to secure the payment of the 
State loan. Giles and others, the owners, with the consent of the Faculty, do 
in that deed convey the property to the President and Directors of the Literary 
Fund, not in fee simple absolute, but in trust for purposes distinctly specified, 
and especially for the purpose of securing the loan, and the most careful and 
well dra^vn provisions are inserted in it, so as to afford the most convenient, 
safe, and ample secuiity to the Literary Fund that it was possible for legal 
learning or ingenuity to devise. The relations of debtor and creditor are fully 
preserved and recognized in it, and in short there is no shadow of foundation, as 
far as we can perceive, for the criticism which has been passed upon it. 

But the Faculty gave no personal security, it is said. Now, the act does not 
require the members of the Faculty to give "bond with security," which tech- 
nical term would import that each should give his bond with one or more secu- 
rities, but in general terms, only requires that the Faculty give to the President 
and Directors of the Literary Fund " sufficient personal security" for the pay- 
ment &c. Under this language, any kind of security might be taken by the 
sad President and Directors, so that it is "personal" and " sufficient." Now, 
the President and Directors of the Literary Fund were the judges both of the 
form of the security and its sufficiency. They took what they deemed proper 
and sufficient ; the matter was fully disposed of by the proper tribunal. But 
the twenty-two, not content with controlling the Trustees of Hampden Sidney 
and the Medical Faculty, usurp the functions of the Literary Board, and review 
and reverse their decisions. If the Board decided wrong, what have they 
to do with it? If the security is insufficient, what business is it of theirs ? But 
like shoemakers that vrander from their lasts, they are ever falling into bluji* 



41 

ders in the very act of finding fault, and while endeavoring to display their su- 
perior wisdom. 

We suppose that if the Literary Board had divided the debt into six equal 
parts, and taken the bond of each professor in a penalty double, his sixth part, 
with a surety whose estate was regarded as equal to the penalty, and with a con- 
dition for the payment of that sixth part with its interest, that would have been 
regarded even by the memorialists as a sufficient compliance with the act of assem- 
bly. And it would have been just as competent for the Board to take the different 
professors as sureties for one another, as to have taken other persons as sureties 
for them. Now the arrangement actually made is still better for the security of 
the debt and more onerous upon the professor. Each professor was made to give 
his bond in a penalty of ^8,500, which is more than double his sixth part of the 
debt, without any surety in the bond, but with a condition, not for the payment 
of his sixth part of the debt merely, but for the payment of the whole debt, the 
whole ^25,000, and the punctual payment of interest upon it, also to pay the 
taxes on the property and to keep the buildings sufficiently insured against fire ; 
the principal to be paid whenever required by the President and Directors of the 
Literary Fund, and further security to be given whenever in like manner requir- 
ed. Thus while under the form of arrangement first above suggested, the secu- 
rity for a part of the debt would have been lost if the principal and surety in any 
cne bond should become insolvent ; under the arrangement actually made the 
debt is perfectly secure so long as any three professors remain solvent to the ex- 
tent of the penalty of the bonds so given. 

Now there never has been a period since the loan was made, when the debt to 
the State was not amply and doubJy secured. For the State holds first, a perfect 
lien upon the land and buildings, which cost ^30,000, and have been kept insured 
and in good repair, in a city where real property is always increasing in value ; 
and secondly, it holds the bonds of the professors for $51,000, with condition for 
the payment of the $25,000. And so long as any three of the six professors can 
be found whose estates are worth each one-third of $25,000 the debt is secure ; 
and if at any time it begins to be insecure, the Literary Fund can require further 
security or enforce instantly all their securities. 

Again we say, what truth is there in the allegation that the provisions of the 
acts of assembly requiring security have not been complied with ? And if there 
is none, ought not some responsibility, some share of public indignation at least, 
to be visited upon those who publicly make such wanton and injurious assertions 
in regard to matters of such moment — such charges of gross violations of con- 
tract on the part of the Faculty, and gross dereliction of duty on the part of the 
high public functionaries composing- the Board who have charge of the Literary 
Fund ? 

Now the peculiar nature of the undertaking of the Faculty and professors of 
the Medical School, in respect to this debt of $25,000 to the State, involves two 
considerations which have an important bearing upon the main question under 
discussion, that is, the question whether the right of appointment is virtually in 
the Faculty, or wholly and exclusively in the Trustees. Those considerations 
are, first, that it is evident the State has an interest in having the appointments 
filled by those who are interested in obtaining professors competent in estate to 
keep up the value of the security. The second is, that the professors themselves 
have a similar interest, and ought to have a right to guard themselves against 
such appointments as will throw the whole burden of this debt upon such of the 
old members as remain solvent. The Trustees have no such interest, and don't 
trouble themselves with any such enquiries. We are sure they would not like to 
be charged with the disagreeable duty of making them ; and yet injustice both 
to the Faculty and to the State, they ought to be made. In this aspect surely, if 
in no other, the act of the Trustees in making an original appointment of their 
own, of a person in no way nominated or approved by the Faculty, assumes a 
harsh and injurious appearance. 

Our 22 friends, witli a considerable parade of words, again introduce the deed 
from Giles and others to the President and Directors of the Literary Fund, given 
to secure the repayment of the first loan made by the Stale, and for other pur- 
poses ; at least we suppose tliat ii the " important and voluminous document" 
referred to, because the words quoted are found in it. It is quoted to proTC that 
the Faculty or its members have no individual rights in regard to the Medical 
School, its government and its property. Let it be remembered that tliat deed is 



42 

a conrejance made Trith the consent acd at the instance of the Medical Faculty, 
fcythe persons from -H-hom the lot on which the Coilesre buOdiGgs now stand Tras 
purchased, with money given to the Faculty by the city. The coDveTacce con- 
tains a mortgage to the Literary Fund for the security of the debt, with power 
to sell for its payment, and a grant of the property, subject to that mortgcge.to 
the Medical Faculty. A portion of that part of the deed which grants to the 
Faculty the equity of redemption is quoted by the memorialists as follows : 

" Xor shall it be in the power of the members of the Faculty aforesaid, in their 
individual rights, either jointly or severally, to redeem said property and require 
such conveyance, but the right of redemption hereby intended to be secured is 
reserved to said Faculty as an organized body having their existence as a Faculty 
of Hampden Sidney College.'' 

The memorial omits certain very important words wliich finish the sentence, 
viz : " or in such mode as the laY,-"may hereafter provide.'" Another part of the 
same clause directs that if the Faculty, or their lawful successors, pay the debt, 
the President and Directors of the Literary Fund shall convey the property to 
such person or persons as the Faculty may direct. 

Xow the clause in question only shows" that the Faculty had no intention or 
desire to break up the College and divide its property among themselves, and 
were in fact willing to cut themselves off from the power of abusing the liberality 
of the city and the State by such a course. They desired the College to be per- 
petual : and the provision in question is one of the strongest pledges of their good 
faith and public spirit. Hence they reserved the equitable title of the property 
to themselves as a 3Iedical Faculty, as an organized body : not to themselves as 
individuals. But even in this they did not look to their connection with Hamp- 
den Sidney as necessary or perpetual, for they reserve the right to themselves, 
'• as an organized body having their existence as a Faculty of Hampden Sidney 
College, or in such mode asthe laic may hereafter provide.'' Why did the memorisJ 
omit these last words of the sentence ? 

Is it true that the members of an organized body have no individual rights be- 
cause it is an organized body? Have the individual members of a corporation, 
for example, no right to have the constitution and by-laws of the corporation 
enforced r Are not the books full of cases of individual corporators compelling, 
h\ mandamus and other remedies, the trustees or other oScers or members of a 
corporation to perform their duties ; 

But whether you call the rights of the Faculty private rights or public rights, 
it makes no difference so thev are rights. As an organized body we have a right 
to our property : and so as an organized body, as a medical Faculty, we have 
the right of nomination. K those rights are denied oi withheld, we are injured 
both as a Medical Faculty and as individuals, as every man's common sense will 
tell him. 

We proceed to notice other charges of the memorial. 

It is charged upon the fathers and founders of this ^ledical School that ti:ey 
were guilty of contumacy to the medical society of Virginia, which the twenty- 
two say had then taken this subject of establishing a Medical College " under 
advisement, and were engaged meeting after meeting in framing and maturing a 
plan of liberal organization, conforming to the wishes and interests of the pro- 
fession at large and the spirit of the age and our institutions.'"' 

This notable piece of history, proclaimed in the round and handsome decla- 
mation which distinguishes the memorial, has been either borrowed from the 
land of dreams or communicated by the spiritual rappers. Only the spirits 
from the land of Hades, or those which dwell now so familiarly in our chairs 
and tables, could reveal the transactions of a defunct society. If the Medical 
Society was not then dead, it was at least in a state of suspended animation. 
That society expired, or seemed to expire in or before the year IS29. After that 
year no meeting of it was held until about the close of the year 1S41, when 
considerable effort and diligence were needed to get together members enough to 
constitute a quorum and reorganize it. The necessary number (nine) was at 
last procured, new members were elected, new oificers appointed, and the new 
rcg("/?i< commenced its operations. It follows from this statement that in 1S35, 
'6 and '*T, when the various movements took place towards establishing a Medi- 
cal School in Richmond, the Medical Society was as if out of existence and 
could not have taken any part in them. 



43 

■" Oar twenty-two friends indulge still further their fondnesf- for historical remi- 
niscences. They nave invoked the ghost of the old association of 1835, that 
" ciose corporation," which first excited their jealousy and anger. It is true 
th.at they did combine against it and kill it. It passed the house of delegates, 
but they caught it in the senate, when their .opposition led to an amendment. 
But the house would not agree to the senate scheme and they both failed. The 
n^xt winter the opposition got up a scheme for a school in Richmond, under the 
cover of the charter of William and Mary College, but the senate amended that ; 
the house refused to concur, and that bill consequently was rejected. 

Our amiable malcontents are very consistent in one thing we must allow. 
They have been the uniform opponents of a Medical College iti Richmond un- 
less they could be in it themselves. They think it a monstrous inconsistency, 
somethmg like a crime, for one or two of those who were opposed to the " close 
corporation" of 1835, to become afterwards members of the Faculty of the Me- 
dical department of Hampden Sidney ; but not at all wrong or inconsistent for 
two of their ov/n solemn league and covenant, who are now denouncing mono- 
polies and close corporations, to have been very members of that closest of all 
close corporations, the aforesaid scherae of 1835. 

The reference to the scheme of 1835, by our opponents in this discussion, re- 
minds us of the fable of the wolf and the lamb. Being resolved to devour our 
institution, they pick a quarrel with it for things that happened before it was 
born. But in giving the history of it they make serious mistakes. They say that 
two of the present faculty were members of a committee of a meeting of phy- 
sicians appointed to defeat the proposed charter, and took an active part 
against it. They must mean to designate Dr. Bohannan as one of them. That 
is surely a mistake. Dr. Bohannan took no part against the scheme, and was 
not appointed a member of any such committee ; certainly not with his ov/n 
knowledge and consent. Dr. Chamberlayne admits that he opposed it ; but in 
his opinion there were reasons enough for opposing it, besides the very peculiar 
features of its charter. He did not think a school promised success under pro- 
fessors who began to lecture, but had to stop for want of students. Dr. Thomas 
Johnson had a small class, but the rest, it is believed, few or none. Dr. Maupin 
was intended to be a member in case a charter was obtained, but did not com- 
mence a course of lectures. 

There are errors also in the history given in the memorial of the origin of this 
College. The dinner party alluded to had nothing to do with it. The first sug- 
gestion of it came from Dr. Bohannan, who consulted Dr. Warner, then pro- 
fessor of Anatomy and Surgery in the University of Virginia, while the latter 
was on a visit to Richmond. Dr. Warner liked the proposal and entered into it 
warmly. Those two then called Dr. Cullen and Dr. Chamberlayne to their aid, 
and those four organized the Medical School, with the consent of the I'rustees 
of Hampden Sidney. The plan Avas chiefly prepared by Dr. Warner ; and the 
negotiation with the Trustees was chiefly carried on through Dr. Draper, pro- 
i'easor of Hampden Sidney, as above stated. Dr. Carroll, the president of flamp- 
den Sidney, v/armly seconded the plan and aided in obtaining the consent of his 
board. Soon after the organization, Dr. Thomas Johnson and Dr. Maupin were 
elected by the Faculty to fill the two vacancies. Thus the scheme was com- 
pleted. Dr. Warner, who perhaps may be regarded more than any one else as 
the founder, had not been mingled in any way with previous factions. Dr. Bo- 
hannan was also in a position to be impartial. And the other four professors 
having been chosen equally from among those who diflcred about the principles 
of organization, the wliole faculty constituted as fair a compromise as if it had 
been constituted with that view. That, however, was an accident ; tlie selec- 
tions were not made with that view, but with a view only to get a good Faculty, 
of persons who could work together for the common end. 

It v/ill be perceived that throughout the discussion, we have spoken with no 
harshness of Dr. Wilson. We shall say nothing to disparage his merits as a 
man, or as a physician. We have not judged of liia claims to the appointment 
in question, because he has not submitted them to our jurisdiction. Neither he 
nor his friends have sought our voices in his favor, or endeavored to render his 
appointment palatable to us, on the ^lontrary he is sought to be thrust upon us, 



44 

as it were by force.* The worst taiag we have against him is his eonsent to 
lend himself to our enemies to break us down and to enter a faculty who could 
not possibly under the circumstances receiye him willingly. There is abundant 
evidence that there was a plan, or plot, combination or conspiracy ; we don't 
know what the right name is. but we understand the thing : and that combina- 
tion was a secret one, studiously kept secret from us, and its object was on the 
one hand to get Dr. Wilson appointed to a chair in the Medical College, and on 
the other to change the manner in which appointments have always heretofore 
been made in this College. 

We intend to be candid with the public in this matter and let them know the 
extraordinary character of that combination as far as we have any evidence 
of it. 

During the last summer one of the members of our Faculty was in extremely 
bad health and it was feared would not recover. That sickness suggested either 
to some of the medical gentlemen who have been recently so active in this mat- 
ter, or to a Reverend Clergyman of this city, who is a member of the Board of 
Trustees of Hampden Sidney College, and a connexion and warm friend of Dr. 
Wilson, the idea of a probable vacancy in the Faculty of the Medical College, 
and of Dr. Wilson as a person to nil it. When the idea was first conceived we 
know not, but as early as November last that reverend gentleman called to see 
a physician of this city (one of the twenty-two memorialists,) and had a con- 
Tersaiion with him upon the propriety of breaking down the old system of ap- 
pointing the professors. In December the same reverend gentleman entertained, 
as he says, the intention of speaking to one of the members of the Faculty of 
the Me^iical College upon the subject of the appointment of Dr. Wilson to fill 
the first vacancy that might occur in the Faculty, and he did say to that member 
something which indicated a purpose to speak to him at some other time upon 
some subject not named. Xo convenient opportunity occurred however for such 
a conversation, until the revere-nd gentleman changed his purpose of communi- 
cating to the Faculty his desire to procure such an appoinment for Dr. Wilson. 
That change was brought about he says by the advice of three physicians of 
Richmond, whom he consulted. The subject of the conversation was the ap- 
pointment of Dr. Wilson and the prospect of a change in the mode of making 
the appointments hereafter. In that conversation the clergyman mentioned the 
intention he had entertained of conversing with a member of the Faculty of the 
Medical College upon the whole subjecf. The three doctors then persuaded 
him to abandon that puipose, and the pretext for secrecy which they urged was, 
that the Faculty were aware of their hostility to the practice which had been 
pursued in making appointments, and that if* he undertook to be their advocate 
with the Faculty it would draw down the dislike of ihe Faculty upon him. He 
then, it seems, relinquished the frank and o{ien purpose he had once entertained 
and consented to become a party to the secret intrigue. There were, we have 
reason to believe, frequent communications upon the subject of their scheme 
between the same reverend gentleman and the clique of physicians. Their mo- 
tive was opposition, we do not say to a Medical College, but to the Medical Col- 
lege, unless a radical change could be enected in it. The object of Dr. Wil- 
son's personal friends, ancT especially the clergyman 'alluded to, was, we may 
presume, chiefiy one of personal, advantage to him. The consequence was a 
combination of dangerous potency between them. 

The choice of Dr. Wilson, as the person through whom to test the question of 
power, and esect, if possible, a revolution in the anairs of the Medical College, 
was either by skilful design or remarkable accident, the most promising that 
could have been made. Amiable in character, of reputation in his profession, 
and popular in manners, he added to these intrinsic qualities the circumstr nc3 
that he belonged to that church, whose influence has been all powerful at Homp- 
den Sidnev, and was connected, bv blood or marriage, as we are informed, with 



* There was a single letter received by a member of the faculty early in April 
last from a friend of Dr. Wilson, residing: in Goochland, recommending him to 
the faculty for the new chair : but it soon afterwards became known to the Fa- 
culty, that Dr. Wilson and his friends generally did not seek his appointment 
through tnem, but by means of a direct anplicatijn to the Trustees. 



45 

about one third of the whole number of Trustees. It is difficult to resist the be- 
lief that these extrinsic, yet important considerations, had their influence upon 
those medical gentlemen in Richmond, who with eagerness united with the cler- 
gyman trustee who resided in Richmond, in designating Dr. Wilson for the first 
fidiire vacancy in the College, as soon as the sickness of a member of the Faculty 
v/arned them that there might soon be such a vacancy. 

VVe are happy to acknowledge our belief that no ties of family connexion, or 
private friendship for Dr. Wilson, or sectarian sympathy, were sufficient to in- 
duce all the members of the Board to violate their engagements to the Faculty. 
There were some at least whose clear sense of justice and right could not be 
dimmed by such influences, and Vt^ho therefore voted against their own relation. 
But human nature is not always strong enough to resist such temptations. 

The combination in Richmond, above alluded to, did not cease their efforts 
upon the improvement in health of him v/hose decease they anticipated. It was 
not long before the desired opportunity occurred of renewing them. 

In March last the Faculty of the Medical College formed a design which they 
were sure the public would approve, of increasing the strength and usefulness 
of the School by creating a nev/ chair, that of physiology and medical juris- 
prudence, and to prevent the burden from falling upon the public, they intend- 
ed to reduce the fees of all the professors. This design of the Faculty contem- 
plated a present personal sacrifice by the professors with a viev/ to a probable 
ultimate benefit of the community and the school. The Chair could only be 
created by them ; it is not pretended that the Trustee^ had, under the "Regula- 
tions" of union between them and the Medical Faculty any such power, but the 
moment that the resolution of the Faculty for creating the new Chair had pass- 
ed, the "outsiders" pounced upon it and endeavoured to bear it off" as their laAV- 
fui prize. As so n as a rumor reached the Faculty that such a movement was 
on foot, they reconsidered ther resolution creating the Chair, Avhich had not yet 
been communicated to the Board of Trustees ; but afterwards receiving sat- 
isfactory assurance from several Trustees that the Board would be governed by 
their nomination, they again passed the resolution, created the Chair, and nomi- 
nated a candidate (Dr. Martin P. Scott) to fill it. The Trustees met; at their meet- 
ing they v/ere overwhelmed with the mass of testimonials v/hich the industry of 
the Richmond physicians and Dr. Wilson's personal friends had procured for 
nim. His friend and connexion, the reverend clergyman from Richmond, was 
there, v/armly advocating his election, and voting for him. The Richmond 
doctors were represented there by their recomendations and their "argument," 
if in no other way. The Faculty rested simply upon their nomination, forward- 
ing to the Board no testimonials, although they had received very numerous and 
very strong recommendations of Dr. Scott. The vote was, as we are told, sev- 
en for Dr. Wilson, six for the nominee of the Faculty, out of a Board of 27 ; 
less than a quorum voting ; but three other members arrived before the Board 
dispersed, two of whom are said to have been in favor of Dr. Wilson and one 
in favor of Dr. Scott. 

The memorialists say the appointment was made after a thorough discussion 
and searching investigation ; but we have the authority of the P'resideni of 
Hampden Sidney for saying that he could not get at that meeting the informa- 
tion he wanted about the relations between the Trustees and the Faculty, the 
original papers Avhich he had expected to see being in the hands of Mr. F. N. 
Watkins, former Secretary, but now no longer a mcmbet of the Board ; "and 
the distant members being unable to Vt^ait — amidst the hurry and multiplicity of 
business — for their arrival!" It follows from his statement, that the other 
members of the Board must have been in the same predicament with himself; 
they had not the papers upon which the questions of right depended, and they 
wouhl not wait for them. The matter was slurred over amidst the hurry and 
multiplicity of business. 

We Ica.n, the Reverend gentleman who has been so active in this business, 
defends his conduct, in part, upon the groimd that at the time the Board of 
Trustees confirmed the nomination of Dr. Cibson, and before he b(>camo. a 
member of that Board, the Trustees passed aresolutu)n dochiring, in substance, 
that in future they meant to take the whole appointing ])ower to themselves, 
and would no hmger recognise the right of the Faculty to nominate. We were 
utterly astonished to hear that there was any foundation wiiatever for such a 



46 

statement. Such a resolution was never communicated to us, nor did we ever 
hear a syllable of it until a few weeks ago we heard of it through the declara- 
tions of the Reverend gentleman. We do not doubt that he has been informed 
recently, that there was such a resolution, but that any such was passed we do 
not believe. It is admitted that there is no such resolution upon the record, 
and it is certain that none such was ever transmitted to us ; and that is sufli- 
cient evidence that nonesuch was passed. But every other circumstance, ex- 
cept the fallible memories of those who think they recollect it, contradicts the 
supposition of its passage. So far from the Secretary of the Board having 
communicated to us such a resolution, his letter to the Dean of the Faculty, 
communicating the confirmation of Dr. Gibson, narrating what took place at 
that meeting, and explaining the temper and disposition of the Board in refer- 
ence to this very subject of the confirmation of appointments made by the Fac- 
ulty, is vt^iolly irreconcileabie with the passage of such a resolution. In that 
letter, vrhich Vv'e have already quoted, the Secretary, Mr.Watkins, assured us 
that the almost unanimous opinion of the Board was that the nominations of 
of the Eaculty ought al"ways to be confirmed. Again, why did the Trustees, at 
the very moment of abolishing the right of nomination by their words, confirm 
it by their acts ? Or if it be said, the resolution was intended for all future 
cases, but not for that case, why did they allow the old practice to continue in 
the next two cases that occurred, when Dr. C. P. Johnson and Dr. Tucker were 
allowed to be nominated, as usual, by the Faculty, and v.- ere confirmed, as 
usual, by the Board? There were other candidates for both those places, but 
the Faculty wer5 allowed to choose between them without a whisper of com- 
plaint. Again, if the v/hole matter now in controversy had been settled by the 
formal action of the Board, in 1847, why these mighty alliances, these secret 
consultations, these labored disquisitions of learned Doctors to efiect that 
which had been so completely done already? The reverend gentlem^an justi- 
fies his v.'hole action in this matter upon the ground of that resolution, and is un- 
derstood as asserting now that he had been informed of that resolution at the 
time that he determined to advocate the election of Dr. Wilson, irrespective of 
the wishes of the Faculty. Why then did he not advise his co-laborers of the 
medical profession to spare their supererogatory efforts to establis;. to the satis- 
faction of the Board a principle already established ? How could Dr. Green, 
the President of the Board, and the other members of the Board, with whom the 
members of the Faculty conversed in this very year, 1853, have labored under 
the delusion that no one, notevenDr. Wilson, could get the appointment from 
the Trustees, if he was not the nominee of the Faculty, if any such resolution 
had passed ? 

If it was passed, and suppressed from the record, and not communicated to 
the Faculty, and kept ready to be sprung upon them upon an occasion like this, 
so far from being any justification of the recent action of the Board, it would 
add fraud to injury. It cannot be ; the Board would not have done it ; the reso- 
lution may have been talked of, bnt we cannot believe thai it was passed ; or if 
passed in a moment of irritation at the act of the^ Faculty in publishing Dr. 
Gibson's election before he was confirmed, they must have reconsidered and re- 
scind it before it was time to record it, upon receiving those satisfactory expla- 
nations of that act of the Faculty which Mr. Watkm's letter informs were 
made to the Board. 

If it was passed, however, we insist that it was a violation of our rights, and 
an act of bad faith ; and it v-'as the plain duty of the Board to give us prompt 
information of it, that we might consider whether we would acquiesce, or call 
for a reconsideration, or take other steps to vindicate our rights. For a judicial 
tribunal to decide a question of right, without notice to the parties interested, and 
without a hearing, and then give them no opportunity of appeal, is a new species of 
law and justice. 

We have replied to the charges of the memorial. We have answered the 
complaints against us. Let the community bear us v/itness that we did not 
commence this war. We were in the peaceful exercise of our just and accus- 
tomed rights, when we were first inmred and then assailed. It is we who have 
cause to complam. 

We complain that our rights have been taken from us without full enquiry, 
and without even notice that the Board meditated a departure from ancient 
usages. 



47-. 

We complain that the refusal of the Trustees to cor.firm our appointment, es- 
pecially as no objection whatever was alledged against our nominee, was a vio- 
lation of the contract under which tne Medical College v/as founded and main- 
tained. 

We complain that the Trustees, without any warrant from that contract, and 
contrary to its obvious spirit, have undertaken to appoint a professor not nomi- 
nated by us, and not known to be at all acceptable to us, by their own original 
act. 

We complain that though it was well known to the Trustees that v/e created 
the new chair with the implied condition that it was to be filled by a person of 
our own choice, they have sanctioned that part of our action which created the 
chair and refused assent to the implied condition. Our final resolution for the 
creation of the new professorship, and our nomination to fill it, were cotempo- 
raneous and connected acts ; and in justice to us the Trustees ought not, con- 
trary to our intention, to have attempted to separate them. And we think this 
part peauliarly hard treatment, as in proposing this additonal chair we were 
about to incur a personal sacrifice in the reduction of our fees for the public 



We complain that while the Trustees have refused to listen to our voice, who 
alone have any peculiar interest in the matter, and who are responsible to pub- 
lic opinion at least, if not to the law, for the general administration and welfare 
of the Medical School, and whose general dominion in the affairs of the College 
was guaranteed by the Trustees themselves in the original compact — they have 
listened and yielded to a voluntary and irresponsible cabal, who have without 
any color of right assumed to control the appointments in this College. 

We complain that the appointment of Dr. Wilson was made virtually, not by 
the Trustees at Hampden Sidney, but in Richmond, by the enemies of the Col- 
lege, acting not in the ordinary expression of individual opinion, but secretly 
and in concert. 

We complain that the most active member of that remarkable combination, 
was, as v/e believe, the clergyman above alluded to, Avho was bound by his po- 
sition, as the only resident member of the Board of Trustees, to confer with us 
frankly and freely about the affairs of the College, at least so far as his own ac- 
tion as a Trustee v^^as likely to affect them ; bound also by his position to be im- 
partial ; but who nevertheless was induced by his partiality to a friend and con- 
nexion to take an active part in the canvass for the appointment, and to be fore- 
most in destroying the relations which have hitherto subsisted between us and 
the Trustees ; and to do this, as we think, in the manner most unfair and ob- 
jectionable. 

It gives us no .pleasure to make complaints against any one, and least of all 
against Ministers of the Gospel of peace, and members of our own profession. 
And if we know ourselves, we have not sought in this paper to do more than de- 
fend ourselves as we ought against unprovoked injuries, which threaten alike 
our own private interests and the interests of the institution which is under our 
care. 

We hope that a majority of the Trustees will yet do us justice. If not, we 
shall be compeJled to seek it elsewhere ; and no where shall we be more happy 
to seek it th.an in that instinttive perception of truth and justice which resides 
in all candid minds and honest hearts. 

R. L. BOHANNAN, M. D., 
L. W. CHAMBERLAYNE, M. D., 
S. MAUPIN, M.D , 
CHAS. BELL GIBSON, M. D., 
CARTER P. JOHNSON, M. D., 
DAVID II. TUCKER, M. D. 
RicHMoxD, 2nd August, 1853 



48 



COPT OF THE ORICtIXAL DRAUGHT 

THE PETITIOX OF DR. TVIRXER AXD OTHERS 

TO THE TRUSTEES OF HA3IPDEX SIIiXEY. 



p€cUicn to thi President aivi TnuUiS :f E-^-din 5fr?n.fy C:JJf^£— ISS?: 

We the undersigned pbysicians. resident.; ciR.:chE:ond. relieving thit a meci- 
ca'! school located in this ciiv is oii-Ti ::r :■" the ~i:::- :: :::e St^tr . : : :r='"r :t- 
faliy petition the President and T_ .rTv^- ; _ U; _ Ui S;il^7 I : hr^i : : t- : : :;_. 
nnder the priTileges of its charter, i.:. ; 7 :::n.:..: l: : 7 ez: 1: :; ~;:r 
powers you are the lezitimate^ judges, out " i 7 : ; 7 , :::n.t :..e decisioii ia liie 
cases of Rntzer's College. Xe^ Jersev. U 7 : 1.1 t^.inetoii Colleges, 
PennsjlTanii. thi: lil extrnsi^e : :hT;7 :..i::i:s g: mt ti7 :: :~!l7r r of teaching 
any departii7nt ~n:;n nii7 ;e : irir U i ts ^ni7:ni :rii:-. \: - : :':yn. 

As to Tie : ;7?:: :n : t ti7 ti^ht t : tt : ; _: : t : ~: : :!■• tijtMt :: : 1: :; 7 nisin insti- 
tution, -e 1: n:: :77nt :: 1 ine. ::::::; . : i:^. :n. :_ . : . . --ir^:: : - -ctiid 
denvt- :-;:.: :: :_ :::::7- ;: ":: ::::;;■ :: I:: : ::- h_. - ::;-:_: .n-.:.;:;n, or 
eren t 7 : :.7 :: : t; 757 : : :: : : ition. The saina is equally 
true ;: 1 :; ;: 7: ;. : ^ :: v^..: :_.;:.: 

In tdr If 7 : U .7 :■ T 7^7 :t ;: ^7! :ne Stite of Xew Jersey, its 

n : :: : U ::n 7 : 1- n :7; n U7^ Yin : 1 s nth;r case is that of Wash- 
n^t: I . j7 11:7: 7 7 17 ^1:7 :: Pt: nsj -3.11, its medical department 
Tr_s cs:a:i:5..7: ;n tne ht : Z : tnnore. Jener^n J ht re —is '.: tnted in Can- 
ens ;nrgn. -^hnr ::s ni7i:.ii t Lnntrnf^as crgi ntt 1 n rnhiiT^tn:!. In each 
of tnese cases ierU U 7 ^ : t ;tn : : t: r :. : t : n ns susiained. 

These cases Triii n " :; n -: tn n:t nt s: is net: ;: n s :al schools, 
in cirirs distant P ::„ Pie t ^izt.t n.snt . nnn :- ;;" n: niTt.- n:"ii :_ : :v -rtttn-^ry 



tages :: 
by a n^t 
obtain e 
ties. From the pec 



r-. ,J^ 



dent thatg^rear isn .: n — 1 n -tiuciion. It is entirely unnecessary icr 

us to atterapr t: 7 ■ 1 n 1 - t: t : : nines of sach a department to the rr-nn- 

larity mi Tin in 1 : 2i iPi i : nPiege. They will be arm ti 
every :ne :: 7: : j: : iii 

In riisintn_g yiu — n tn? 7 . - : P^+ , it is proper to s : 1 

gint.i mn there nam 1 n 1 1 n t 1 e P n nrirate considei t 

in retrrrnce to their ntness ::r :n7 :_inn : : -Lni t'.eir names are 
Ail of them hare been the advocates of a me 1:1. -iintl in Richii. P. 

pledge themselTes. if elected, to devote themsei- = 1 e 1 Pv to the ere ; n : : n 
mednii: s:h: P -hPh -iP :e 1 credit t: Hini-fei -P-vP 

TTe vr: i in : : n.e Boajrd is. that while vre do not ask the funds of the parent 
institnn 1 7 ~ P guarantee to us the entire possession of such buildiDgs, &c. 
■which TVc may raise with our own funds, or contributioDs from our mends. 

The ticket presented is a tmited ticket, made upafter mature deliberation, and 
therefore is presented as a vhole. 



49 



COPY OF THE ORIGINAL DRAUGHT OF THE 

REGULATIONS 

SENT TO THE TRUSTEES FOR THEIR APPROVAL. 



Original Draft of Resolutions for a Medical College — 1837. 

1. The Medical Department of Hampden Sidney Oollege shall consist of six 
professors for the present, viz: a professor of anatomy and physiology; of theory 
and practice of medicine; of surgery; of therapeutics and materia medica; of 
obstetrics and the diseases of women and children; of chemistry and pharmacy; 
in whom shall be vested the government of the department, subject always t© 
the approval of the "President and Trustees of Hampden Sidney College." 

2. The lectures in this department shall be delivered in the city of Richmond, 
and commence on the first Monday in November, of each year, and continue 
until the last week in March ensuing, making a term of five calendar months. 
During this period, lectures shall be delivered by the medical professors on all 
the branches which are recognized as necessary and proper for the degree of 
" doctor of medicine." 

3. The professor of anatomy shall have exclusive control of the dissecting 
rooms, responsible for the faithful discharge of his duties to the " President and 
Trustees of Hampden Sidney College," and for his attention to which he shall 
receive from each dissector a fee of ten dollars exclusive of that for his regu- 
lar anatomical lectures. 

4. The professor of anatomy may, if he deem it expedient, employ an assis- 
tant as prosecter, provided no additional charge be made for his services oyer 
that specified as a dissecting room fee. 

5 Each professor shall receive from the student attending his lectures, a fee, 
to be fixed by the Medical Faculty, not exceeding, however, twenty dollars. 

6. As attainment is the only just foundation for distinction, any student shall 
be permitted to present himself for examination at the close of each session, 
provided, however, he has previously attended in this College a full course of 
lectures in all the branches taught therein, together with attendance upon the 
dissecting room, and has been studying medicine for two years, and registered 
his name as a candidate for graduation with the Dean of the Faculty, on or be- 
fore the first day of January of that year, and deposited at that time with the 
Dean a thesis written by himself on some medical subject. 

7. It shall be the duty of the medical professers to examine such candidates as 
have complied with the above requisitions, at the close of the winter term of lec- 
tures, upon all the branches taught in their schools, and upon their being deemed 
worthy of the degree of doctor of medicine, shall recommend them to the Presi- 
dent and Trustees of Hampden Sidney College as suitable persons for that de- 
gree. 

8. At the close of the session, or as soon thereafter as convenient, the President 
and Trustees of Hampden Sidney College shall confer upon the candidate, in 
the city of Richmond, (whose names have been presented by the Medical Fac- 
ulty,) a diploma, with the title of doctor of medicine, with the seal of the Col- 
lege attached thereto. 

9. The Medical Faculty shall pass such additional regulations or by-laws as 
may be necessary for the government of the students or advancement of the in- 
terest of the department, subject to the approval of the President and Trustees of 
Hampden Sidney College. 

10. All property, either in lecture-rooms, hospitals, stocks, or of any kind 
whatever, Avhich may be acquired by private subscription to that department, 
or by contributions from the professors, shall belong exclusively to the medical 
professors as their private property, and independent of all control of the Presi- 
dent and Trustees of Hampden Sidney College. But should the President and 
Trustees of Hampden Sidney appropriate as funds, or private individual be- 
quest, donation, or otherwise, convey to Hampden Sidney College, for the use 
and benefit of the medical department, any real estate, stocks, or money in hand, 



50 

it shall be regarded as the property of the College of Hampden Sidney, but to 
but to be appropriated to the use of the Medical Department so long as it is in 
operation ; but upon the cessation of its functions as a medical school, all the 
possessions thus obtained shall revert to the President and Trustees of Hampden 
Sidney College. 

11. The Medical Faculty shall appoint a Dean, whose duty it shall be to pre- 
serve a faithful record of the proceedings of the Faculty, to be exhibited to the 
President and Trustees of Hampden Sidney College, Vi^hen required. 

12. Medical professors shall have no vote or voice in the meetings of the 
Faculty of Arts. 



THE EEGULATIONS AND RESOLUTIONS 

ADOPTED BY THE TRUSTEES ON THE 1st DECEMBER 183T. 



REGULATIONS FOR THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF HAMPDEN SIDNEY COLLEGE, 

Hampden Sidney College, Dec. 1st, 1837. 

At a meeting of the Trustees of Hampden Sidney College, this date, present, 
President Carroll, Benj'n. F. Stanton, Henry E. Watkins, James Madison, Wm. 
S. Morton, Sam'l C. Anderson, Nath'l E. Venable, James D. Wood, Henry 
Carrington, Sam'l Branch, and Paul S. Carrington: 

Col. Madison was appointed chairman, and Jas D. Wood, clerk. 

A resolution was offered to the Board to establish a Medical Department in 
the city of Richmond. After much discussion on the subject, the following re- 
gulation for the management of said department was adopted, along with the 
resolutions thereto appended. 

Regulations for the Medical Departmmt of Hampden Sidney College. 

1. The Medical Department of Hampden Sidney College shall for the pre- 
sent consist of six professors : viz., a professor of anatomy and physiology ; of 
theory and practice of medicine ; of surgery ; of therapeutics and materia me- 
dica ; of obstetrics, and the diseases of women and children ; of chemistry and 
pharmacy ; in whom shall be vested the government of the department, subject 
always to the approval of the president and trustees of Hampden Sidney College. 

2. The lectures in this department shall be delivered in the city of Richmond, 
and commence on the 1st Monday of Nov. in each year, and continue until the last 
week in March ensuing, making a term of five calendar months. During this 
period lectures shall be delivered by the medical professors on all the branches 
which are recognized as necessary and proper for the " Degree of Doctor of 
Medicine." 

3d. The professor of anatomy shall have exclusive control of the dissecting 
rooms, responsible for the faithful discharge of his duty to the President and 
Trustees of Hampden Sidney College ; and for his attention to which he shall 
receive from each director a fee of ten (|10) dollars, exclusive of that for his re- 
gular anatomical lectures. 

4. The professor of anatomy may, if he deem it expedient, employ an assistant 
as prosector ; provided no additional charge be made for his services over that 
specified as a dissecting room fee. 

5. Each professor shall receive from every student attending his lectures a fee 
to be fixed by the Medical Faculty, not exceeding twenty (|20j dollars. 

6. As attainment is the only just foundation for distinction, any student shall 
be permitted to present himself for examination at the close of each session '. 
provided, however, he has previously attended in this department one full course 
of lectures on all the branches taught therein, together with attendance upon 
the dissecting room of the College for one session, and shall have studied medi- 
cine with a respectable practitioner for two years ; he must also have registered 
his name as a candidate for graduation with the Dean of the Faculty on or be- 
fore the I'st day of January of that year, and deposited with him at that time a 
thesis, written by himself upon some medical subject. 



51 

'7. It shall be the duty of the medical professors to examine such candidatas 
S.S have complied with the above requisitions, at the end of the w^inter term of 
lectures, upon all the branches taught in their schools ; and upon their being 
deemed worthy of the " Degree of Doctor of Medicine" shall r«commend them 
to the President and Trustees of Hampden Sidney College as suitable persons 
for that degree. 

8. At the close of the session, or as soon thereafter as convenient, the Presi- 
dent and Trustees of Hampden Sidney College shall confer upon the candidates 
(so recommended,) if they deem them entitled thereto, a diploma, with the title 
of "Doctor of Medicine," with the seal of the College attached. 

9. The Medical Faculty shall pass such regulations and bye-laws as may be 
necessary for the government of the Medical Students or the advancement of 
the interests of the Department, subject to the approval of the " President and 
Trustees of Hampden Sidney College." 

10. All property of any kind whatever, which may be acquired by private 
contribution or by contribution from the professors, shall belong exclusively to 
to the medical professors as their private property, and independent of all con- 
trol of the president and Trustees of Hampden Sidney College. But should the 
President and Trustees of Hampden Sidney College appropriate their funds, or 
private individuals, by bequest, donation or otherwise, convey to the said Presi- 
dent and Trustees for the use and benefit of the Medical Department, any real 
estate, stocks or money, or property of any kind, it shall be regarded as the 
property of the said President and Trustees of Hampden Sidney College, but to 
be appropriated to the use and benefit of the Medical Department as long as it 
is in operation, but upon the cessation of its functions as a school of Medicine, 
the property thus obtained shall remain to the President and Trustees of Hamp- 
den Sidney College. 

11. The Medical Faculty shall appoint a Dearly whose duty it shall be to pre- 
serve a faithful record of the proceedings of the Faculty, to be exhibited to the 
President and Trustees of Hampden Sidney College when required. 

12. The Medical professors shall have no vote nor voice in the meetings of 
the Faculty of Arts. 

The following Professors were appointed to fill the chairs respectively 
named : 

Augustus L. Warner, M. D., Professor of Anatomy and Physiology. 

John Cullen, M. D., Professor of Theory and Practice of Medicine. 

R. L. Bohannan, M. D., Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of women and 
children. 

■ ■ M. D., Professor of Surgery. 

■ M. D., Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacy. 

L. W. Chamberlayne, M. D., Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics. 

The following resolutions were then adopted : 

Resolved, That the Medical Faculty be authorised necessarily to select and 
appoint some suitable persons to fill the Professorships of "Chemistry and Phar- 
macy" and "Surgery" until these Professorships shall be filled by the President 
and "Trustees of Hampden Sidney College. 

Resolved, That the Medical Faculty be authorized necessarily to supply any 
vacancy which may occur in said Faculty until said vacancy shall be filled by 
the President and Trustees of Hampden Sidney College. 

Resolved, That the Medical Faculty shall not have the power to subject the 
President and Trustees of Hampden Sidney College to any expense or debt on 
account of the Medical Department, unless specially authorized to do so by an 
order of a Board of said Trustees. 

JAMES MADISON, Chairman. 
JAMES D. WOOD, Vlerk. 



52 



LETTER OF PRESIDENT CARROLL TO DR. WARNER. 

Dated the ^d December, 1837. 



Hampden Sidket College, Va., Dec. 2d, 1837. 
AuGLSTus L. Warner, M. D : 

Dear Sir : 

Our Board of Trustees met yesterday, and I hasten to 
communicate to you the result of our sessions. As requested by you, I moved 
in the name of the Faculty of Arts, for the establishment of a Medical Depart 
meat of Hampden Sidney College, to be located in the city of Richmond. 
The resolution, after a full and free discussion, was carried with a great 
degree of cordiality and unanimity We then took up seriatim your rules 
and regulations, and only modified them so as to suit the actual provisions 
of our charter, under which we are obliged to act of course, in the con- 
cerns of the Medical Department, as well as in the Academical. The altera- 
tions which the charter obliged us to make, I will nov*^ transcribe, remarking, 
however, that I believe we have not in the least entrenched on the spirit of any 
of your articles of regulations so altered. In your eighth article respecting 
conferring degrees, the language originally made it imperaiite on our board to 
confer degrees on the candidates recommended by the Medical Faculty. We 
have altered it thus : " The President and Trustees of Hampden Sidney Col- 
lege shall confer upon the candidates so recommended," if they deem them en- 
titled thereto, " a diploma," &c. Our charter vests the power of conferring de- 
grees in the Board of Trustees, after a recommendation by the Faculty of Arts — 
of course the medical degrees must be placed under the same category. Let it 
he understood, however, that there will be no diflEiculty nor uncertainty about 
your candidates receiving their degrees, no more than if your recommendation 
rendered it imperative on us to confer the degree. Your tenth article, in regard 
to property, was made more comprehensive to your advantage than the way in 
which you drafted it. Instead of specifying " lecture rooms, hospitals, stocks," 
fee, we thought you might require servants, and therefore altered it to read, 
"all property of any kind whatever." The resolution respecting filling vacan- 
cies had to be modified to suit the powers which our charter confers on us for 
appointing professors, so as to read as follows : 

" Resolved, That the Medical Faculty be authorized to select and appoint 
suitable 'persons to fill the professorships of Surgery, Chemistry and Phar- 
macy, until these professorships shall be filled by the President and Trustees of 
Hampden Sidney College." 

Our charter explicitly requires us to appoint in due form the professors. But 
the spirit of the resolution you suggested is completely preserved. You can ap- 
point the men you wish immediately, under this power now granted to you by 
our Board, and under a similar resolution, which our Board passed in regard to 
the resignation of any of the profesfors how appointed, or any vacancy that 
may occur, you can fill that also immediately when it occurs, and our Board, 
when they meet, will in due form confirm your appointment.. 

In regard to the conferring degrees "in the City of Richmond, "that clause was 
struck out, not because the Board were not willing that it should be done by the 
President, if he chose, but because they merely did not like for the present to 
bind themselves to such an arrangement permanently without more reflection. 
On this subject I will guarantee there will be no difficulty. If you desire it, as 
long as I am the President, I will visit Richmond and confer the degrees there. 
The objection to binding the Board to confer the degrees in the City of Piieh- 
mond, was simply that we did not know but that sometimes it might put the 
Board to inconvenience to do so. 

Allow me to say, in conclusion, that the Facalty of arts, and the great ma- 
jority of our Board, regard your enterprise with enthusiastic interest. My de- 
vout desire is, that you may succeed beyond your most sanguine expectations 
Will not your Faculty, in announcing your School, allude to our department 
also. 

Yours, &c., 

D. L. CARROLL. 

P, S. — Your ticket of professors was passed just as you sent it. You are 
appointed authoritatively by the Board to the several professorships to which 
your names stand attached on the ticket. 



53 



LETTER OF PRESIDENT CARROLL TO DR. BOHANNAN. 
Dated the 2nd Decetnher, 1837. 



Hampdew Sidney College, Va., Dec. 2d, 1837. 

R. S. BoHANNAN, M. D. 

Dear Sir, 

Our Board of Trustees met yesterday, and I hasten to commu- 
nicate to you the result of the meeting, 

I moved in behalf of the Faculty of Arts that a Medical Department of 
Hampden Sidney College be established, to be located in the city of Richmond. 
After a full and free discussion the resolution was carried with much cordiality 
and unanimity by the Board of Trustees. Your ticket of Professors was then 
presented, and each of you formally appointed to the chairs to which your names 
stand attached on the ticket. The rules and regulations which you drafted*and 
presented were adopted with, such slight alterations as made the language of 
their provisions correspond with the exercise of those powers in our charter 
which relate to conferring degrees and appointing professors. The alterations 
made in no way effect the spirit of your regulations — all that you have request- 
ed we have granted. I have written to Dr, Warner the precise alterations 
made and the reasons for making them — to that document I refer you for fur- 
ther information on this point. 

I have only to add in conclusion, that the Faculty of Arts and a large majori- 
ty of the Board of Trustees regard your enterprise with deep and lively inter- 
est. My devout desire is, that you may succeed in building up a medical school 
that shall reflect honor on the present Institution, establish for yourselves a repu- 
tation as men ripe in the science of your profession, and confer a lasting benefit 
on the State of Virginia. 

When you announce School to the public, will you not allude to the acade- 
mical department of Hampden Sidney College? 

We shall be glad to be recognized by you in this way. 
Yours very truly, 

D. L. CARROLL. 

Directed—^ 

R. L. BoHANNAN. M. D., 

Richmond Va. 



LETTER OF PROFESSOR DRAPER TO DR. MAUPIN. 



University, New York, July 29th, 1853. 
My Dear Sir : 

You are right in supposing, that the negotiations for the estab- 
lishment of your College were for the most part conducted through me. I gave 
all the papers that were in my possession to Dr. Warner, and have therefore 
nothing now in the way of documentary evidence. You are also right in your 
view of the manner in which professors were to be appointed — at least accord- 
ing my understanding of it. The intention of the parties was, that the power 
should be virtually in the Medical Faculty, and this was supposed to be carried 
out, by granting to them the power of nomination, the Trustees reserving their 
chartered rights by electing. It was the understanding that these elections were 
to be merely confirmatory in their character, and that the nomination of the 
Faculty was not to be departed from, except for very grave and most obvious 
reasons. Even in that case, my understanding of it was, that the Faculty 
would be required to nominate again a different candidate. 

My recollection of these arrangements is clear, because at the organization 
of the medical department of this University, which took place soo)i after, and 
in which I was the chief negotiator, tlie same principles were introduced, the 
example of tlie Richmond school being constantly before us. Tliose principles 
are still in operation here, and have never been questioned or departed from. 

Yours truly, 

JOHN W. DRAPER. 

Prof. Maupin, M. D. 



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55 



TO THE PUBLIC. 

(From the Whig of September ISth^ 1853.) 



At a meeting of the President and Trustees of Hampden Sydney College, held 
on the 25th day of August, 1853, at the request of the Faculty of the Medical 
Department of the College, to reconsider the action of a former Board in elect- 
ing a Professor in the Medical Faculty, in disregard of a nomination made to 
the Board by the Medical Faculty ; after the subject had been discussed, and the 
undersigned members of the Medical Faculty, who were present, were, in ac- 
cordajice with usage, about to withdraw from the meeting. Rev. Moses D. 
Hoge, (one of the Trustees,) asked the Board to allow him to make a personal 
explanation, and called attention to certain charges against him, contained in a 
paper laid before the Board by the Faculty, being their "reply" to "the me- 
morial" addressed to the President and Trustees by " Twenty-two Physicians 
of Richmond." He desired that before the undersigned retired, these charges, 
the truth of which he denied, should be established or withdrawn. The under- 
signed expressed their unwillingness to enter at such a time and place into any 
personal controversy, which might protract the proceedings unduely, but said 
they were willing to consider tlie matter at any other place and time ; but upon 
IMr. Hoge's insisting on the importance to himself of having an investigation, 
before the body to v/hom the charges had been preferred and avowing his readi- 
ness there to answer any enquiries in regard to his conduct in the premises, the 
following paragraphs of the "reply," which embody the charges made against 
Mr. Hoge, were read to the Board : 

^* During the last summer one of the members of our Faculty was in extremely 
bad health, and it was feared would not recover. That sickness suggested either 
to some of the medical gentlemen who have been recently so active in this mat- 
ter, or to a Reverend Clergyman of this city, who is a member. of the Board of 
Trustees of Hampden Sidney College, and a connexion and warm friend of Dr. 
Wilson, the idea of a probable vacancy in the Faculty of the Medical College, 
and of i)r. Wilson as a person to fill it. When the idea was first conceived we 
know not, but as early as November last that reverend gentleman called to see 
a physician of this city (one of the twenty-two memorialists,) and had a conver- 
sation with him upon the propriety of breaking down the old system of appoint- 
ing the professors In December the same reverend gentleman entertained, as 
he says, the intention of speaking to one of the members of the Faculty of the 
Medical College upon the subject of the appointment of Dr. Wilson to fill the 
first vacancy that might occur in the Faculty; and he did say to that member 
something which indicated a purpose to speak to him at some other time upon 
some subject not named. No convenient opportunity occurred however for such 
11 conversation until the reverend gentleman changed his purpose of communi- 
cating to the Faculty his desire to procure such an appointment for Dr. Wilson. 
That change was brought about, he says, by the advice of three physicians of 
Richmond, wliom he consulted. The subject of the conversation w^as the ap- 
pointment of Dr. Wilson and the prospect of a change in the mode of making 
tlie appointments hereafter. In that conversation the clergyman mentioned the 
intention he had entertained of conversing with a member of the Faculty of the 
Medical Colle/^c upon the whole subject. The three doctors then persuaded 
him to abandon that [)urpose, and the ])retext for secrecy which they urged was, 
that the Faculty were aware of their hostility to the practice which had been 
pursued in making appointments, and that if he undertook to be their advocate 
with the Faculty it would draw down the dislike of tlic Faculty upon him. He 



56 

then, it seems, relinquished the frank and open purpose he has once entertained, 
and consented to become a party to the secret intrigue. There were, we have 
reason to believe, frequent communications upon the subject of their scheme be- 
tween the same reverend gentleman and the clique of physicians. Their motive 
was opposition, we do not say to a Medical College, but to the Medical Col- 
lege, unless a radical change could be effected in it. The object of Dr. Wilson's 
personal friends, and especially the clergyman alluded to, was, we may pre- 
sume, chiefly one of personal advantage to him. The consequence was a com- 
bination of dangerous potency between them. 

*' We complain that the most active member of that remarkable combination 
was, as we believe, the clergyman above alluded to, who was bound by his 
position, as the only resident member of the Board of Trustees, to confer with 
us frankly and freely about the affairs of the College, at least so far as his own 
action as a Trustee was likely to affect them ; bound also by his position to be 
impartial ; but who nevertheless was induced by his partiality to a friend and 
connexion to take an active part in the canvass for the appointment, and to be 
foremost in destroying the relations which have hitherto subsisted between us 
and the TrusteeSj and to do this, as we think, in the manner most unfair and 
objectionable." 

In the explanations which then ensued, Mr. Hoge admitted, seriatim, the cor- 
rectness of the facts stated in the above quotations from the "Reply," but de- 
nied the correctness of the inference which the Faculty had drawn from those 
facts. He denied any knowledge of hostility towards the Medical College on 
the part of the physicians with whom he had consulted, but said that he had 
been assured by those gentlemem of their entire friendship and good will to the 
school. He denied any intention to become a party to a secret intrigue in ad- 
Yocating as he did the election of Dr. Wilson, and stated that he did not con- 
sider himself bound to consult with the Faculty or to inform them what hi? 
course would be in reference to the Medical Department. He denied any ur-f 
friendly feeling on his own part towards the Medical School, but professed to 
take a great interest in its welfare, and to have been actuated in his conduct in 
the late election solely by a desire to advance the prosperity of the institution. 

Upon this admission by Mr. Hoge of the facts stated, and this disclaimer of 
the motives imputed to him, the undersigned expressed their willingness to with- 
draw from the "Reply" the expressions "secret intrigue," and "and to do this, 
as we thinkj in the manner the most unfair and objectionable." 

CARTER P. JOHNSON, M. D. 
S. MAUPIN, M. D. 
DAVID H. TUCKER, M. D. 
Sept. 12th, 1853. 

[This statement is published at the request of Mr. Hoge, and would have ap- 
peared immediately after the late meeting of the Board, but for the necessary ab- 
sence from Richmond of two of the undersigned.] 




OPINIONS 







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G. iV. JOHNSOM AND A. A. MORSON, ESaS., 



OPOKT QUESTIONS CONCERWma 



THE RIGHTS OF THE FACULTY 



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TOGETHER WITH THE 



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OF THE SAM-s: F/ CULTY TO THS 



MEMORIAL OF THE TWENTY-TWO PHYSICIANS 



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